Research Guides: Searching Tips & Tutorials: Fields

What to look for

Records in library databases are comprised of fields containing specific pieces of bibliographic information. Common fields include:

Limiting your search to specific database fields can yield more precise results.
For instance, if you are looking for books by Adam Smith instead of about him, it is more efficient to limit your search to the author field.
To find various fields within a database, look for drop down boxes or menus to select the field you want to search.
Then combine words and fields together with boolean or proximity operators, depending on how precise you want to be.

If you do not choose a specific field, the database usually reverts to a keyword search, where your words will be searched throughout the record.
If your keyword search retrieves too many records (more than 50), try narrowing your search to retrieve a more manageable result.
Information overload - too many results - can be a worse situation than finding only 10 very relevant results.

Need help understanding fields Ask Us, call us at 401-337-6212, or stop by the Research Help Desk in the Information Commons.

The record belows shows the field names on the left: Author, Title, Source, Standard No., Details, Language, Abstract, Descriptor