Effective searching is a skill that must be learned and practiced. Below are examples of how to combine your keywords to improve your searching in Te Waharoa. Most academic databases use similar features (check the specific databases help section if you are unsure).

• Use quote marks "..." to search for exact phrases e.g. "climate change" searches for those two words in that order.

• Use AND (in caps) to link two keywords or phrases e.g. "climate change" AND agriculture find only resources where both phrases appear.

• Use OR (in caps) to expand the search using alternative keywords e.g. "climate change" OR "global warming" finds resources where either of the phrases appear.

• Use brackets (...) to group keywords and change the order by which they are search e.g. ("climate change" OR "global warming") AND (agriculture OR farming).

• Use an asterisk * to search for a keyword and all of the word's alternative endings e.g. farm* will search for farm, farming, farmer, farmers.

Try these search examples yourself and note how many results you get for the different combinations of keywords.

Find videos on searching and more help on the Using te Waharoa library webpage.

Searching in Te Waharoa will often produce too many results. To reduce the number of results and find relevant resources it's important to learn what filters you can use:

• Filtering by year will remove outdated results and make it easier to find the most recent research in an area.
• Depending on your needs it can be a good idea to filter by 'Resource Type'. A book often provides introductory information to a topic whereas an academic article will be more specific and take certain information for granted.
• Resources in Te Waharoa will have subject headings attached to them and you can filter by these subjects to narrow your search.

It's important to login before searching. Your login details are the same as you use for Nuku.

The image below shows the tools available for each item you find in Te Waharoa.

• Use the pin icon to save search results to your account (you must be logged in for this to work).
• Use the quote mark icon to access the citation for the item.
• Use the red arrows when they appear on articles to find related items, including sources referenced in the item you're looking at and sources citing the item you're looking at.

Good articles can lead you to other relevant information sources which will save you time searching.

On an item in Te Waharoa, the two red arrows link to sources citing the item, and sources cited in the item. These direct you to what the library provides access to.

Google Scholar has a similar feature which links to sources which have cited the item you are looking at and "related articles".

Not all articles on Google Scholar will be available to you. To display access links to what the library has, link Google Scholar to the library by following the instructions on the Using Google Scholar library webpage.