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There are many hundreds of resources on the internet for clinical staff.  Below are some tips on how best to search for what you are looking for.

Basic Search Tips
It's easy to improve your search results. All you need to know are some basics. Some search engines have menus to do this but for others you have to enter the right commands. The following basic commands should be plenty of info for most people and should work in most of the major search engines.

Be Specific
The more specific you are, the more info you'll find. Tell the search engine exactly what you're looking for.

The + Symbol
Put the most important terms in your search first. To make sure the search finds pages with all the words you're looking for, put the + symbol in front of each word.

The - Symbol
If you're looking for something specific but don't want tons of other info that's not related to your topic, use the - symbol.

Quotation Marks
When you put your search terms in quotation marks, it's called a "phrase search." The search engine will give you pages that have the terms in the exact order of the words in quotations.

Combining Symbols
Once you know how the above symbols work, try combining them to narrow down your search.

Boolean
Boolean (pronounced boo lee an) can be used in most major search engines when they allow some kind of advanced searching. The most popular Boolean operators are AND, OR and NOT. Booleans are a lot like the + and - symbols. AND means "include all of the words," OR means "include any of the words" and NOT means "exclude." For example, if you're looking for info on music and dancing enter music AND dancing. Your search will bring back sites that only include both those words.

For more information or additional help locating documents.
Mary Jo Wyels
(616) 394-3109

Hospital library catalog search
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