ALL ABOUT: Refining Your Searches

Database note: Some of the links on this page direct to the University of Kentucky Libraries' databasesLinks to an external site..

Most search interfaces offer tools to refine and adjust your search, with options that go well beyond search operators. To learn more about search operators, visit ALL ABOUT: Search Operators & Wildcards.

The following examples use HOLLIS, Harvard’s library discovery system. These types of search modifications are available in most library catalogs.

Apply a filter 

Get a specific subset of results

Imagine you're searching for books about education and trauma.

Our recommendation: you can cluster keywords together that try to cover all the fields that do education research such as (education OR universities OR schools OR learning OR teaching OR psychology).

Learn more: the InfoKat Discovery research guide Links to an external site. includes information about filters and limiting.

Add or change search terms

Investigate your preliminary results for ideas

Imagine you are searching for materials about movies.

Our recommendation: search for film OR cinema OR “motion pictures” OR movies. Constructing a search like this accounts for synonyms and alternate terms to ensure more complete results.

Learn more: go to ALL ABOUT: Controlled Vocabulary and ALL ABOUT: Search Operators & Wildcards

Tips: you can compare the number of results to get a sense of what the new search term added. Sometimes the most powerful move is to remove a search term.

Change the sort

Retrieve your results in a different order to reveal new items

Imagine you are trying to get a sense of recent scholarship in nineteenth-century American Literature.

Our recommendation: search for (american OR “united states”) AND 19th AND literature in the subject field then sort your results by date newest. Reviewing your results in chronological order allows you to notice themes over time. Most databases default to a "relevance" sort, which is helpful when your search returns a lot of somewhat relevant results. Find a search query that gives mostly on-topic results, then you can use the other sort options to explore.

Learn more: Web of Science Links to an external site. allows you to sort by times cited. This is a powerful tool for finding the most influential sources on a topic.

Explore the advanced search page

Reveal options you hadn't even imagined

Most databases start you on a basic search page modeled on Google's single search box. Find the Advanced Search page to access more specialized search capabilities. It might be called advanced, options, command, expert, or be marked simply by an icon.

Some particularly complex databases offer a search query builder. This builder inserts the appropriate search syntax between your terms as you select them.

Examples