How to increase or decrease the number of hits - The art of getting more with less and less with more.

[Dialogues]
Anna: Wednesday afternoon. 
Here we are…
working on our research projects,
Fred: - getting motivated,
Anna: - sharing ideas.
Fred: That’s what studying’s all about!
Anna: A community of great minds!
Fred: The future of humanity!
Anna: Okay! Let’s do it!

[Voice-over]
Anna and Fred are home working on their research.

[Dialogues]
Anna: Want some tea?
Fred: No.

[Voice over]
Fred found two document references. One from the 19th century and one with a title he doesn’t even understand.
Anna, however, found no less than 12,732 references. 12,732!

[Dialogues]
Fred to Anna: I quit. 
These search engines are lousy. 
They’re crap. It’s all b…
Bool?
Librarian: Boolean expressions? 
Ring a bell?
Librarian: I’ll explain. Thanks Anna, I’ll take that tea--with sugar.

[Voice over – male]
Like Fred and Anna, you too might find that you either have too many or too few results, without knowing why. Which research technique should you use in this case?

In either case start with an analysis and choose the right strategy. Follow the librarian’s advice and use Boolean expressions to get better results.

Let’s look at the first case, the most common: too many results, which is unmanageable.
You’ll need a different strategy to avoid drowning in sea of references.

Let’s take an example. Like Anna, you’re searching for documents on “Type 2 diabetes”. You typed it word for word into the search engine and got far too many results.

To narrow the search results, begin by writing your query using Boolean operators: [see table on screen]

In the second case, like Fred, you could get very few results. If this happens, it doesn’t mean that there are no documents that match your search, but rather that your query was badly written or the words you chose were too specific. You will have to re-write your query to get a useful number of results.

Use research techniques to increase the number of results. Take Fred’s search on children’s literacy.  Using Boolean operators will help improve your results.

[see table on screen]

Ask your friendly librarian about the other specialized research tools such as thesauri or indexes. 

One more thing: Be sure to choose the right tool for the job. The lack of compelling results could also mean you are using the wrong tool.

[Dialogues] 
Anna: Hey Fred, what’s for dinner?
Fred: Burgers?
Anna: AND salad?
Fred: No, no, Burger (NOT salad) AND potatoes