While we may be most accustomed to using natural language or question searching in Google or web search engines, library databases are built differently and are most effectively accessed using keywords connected together by boolean operators. The best place to start in identifying keywords to search is to examine your topic or research question. The main concepts are usually good keywords to start out with. 

Example

I am interested in electric toothbrushes moving from a tool for people with limited motor skills to being promoted by dentists for general use. 

Keywords: "electric toothbrushes" "motor skills" promoted use

Using your the keywords you identified, you generate a list of potential synonyms or related terms 

Boolean operators include AND, OR, NOT to either narrow or broaden a search. Many databases require operators to be typed in all caps. 

With the example topic above, you can use Boolean operators to shift from natural language searching to a keyword search:

	AND narrows or limits a search by requiring that the results contain both or all search terms/words. "artificial intelligence" AND labor
	OR broadens or expands a search by requiring that the results contain either or any of the terms. Useful for finding synonymous or related words. labor OR work
	NOT narrows or limits a search by excluding sources with a specified search term. "artificial intelligence" NOT "united states"