There are a number of search strategies you can use in Library OneSearch and our library databases to help improve your search results.
Put quotation marks (" ") around search terms to search for them as an exact phrase. Example: "higher education."
Use an asterisk (*) if you'd like to find multiple endings of a word root. Example: educat* will find educate, educator, education, educating, etc.
Authors may publish their works under different names or variations of the same name over the course of their lifetimes. Try searching for different combinations of an author's name or try using some of the advanced search features in our databases to search by an author's institutional affiliation (e.g., Brandeis) or their ORCID ID, if they have one.
This feature is useful if you want to specify your search terms' proximity to each other. The formatting for this feature differs between databases, so check the database's help page if you're not sure what format to use. Here's the formatting you would use in some of our library's databases to search for the word feminist within 4 words of the word pedagogy:
L Education(General)
LA History of education
LC Special aspects of education
LD Individual Institutions - United States
LE Individual Institutions - America (except U.S.)
LF Individual Institutions - Europe
LG Individual Institutions - Asia, Africa, Indian Ocean Islands, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands
LH College and school magazines & papers
LJ Student fraternities - United States
LT Textbooks
Our picture book collection and the majority of our education titles are located on Goldfarb Level 1. Some subject-specific titles (e.g., math education or art education) are shelved in separate areas of the library.
Note: Oversize materials (+ in front of the call number) are shelved separately from the regular sized materials.