Title: Broadening and Narrowing Your Search
Course: Library - Library Sandbox > Section: Ontario Tech Library Online: Searching Omni for Books, Articles & More

One way to improve your search is to add or remove keywords. How will this affect the results you get?

- To broaden the search: Fewer keywords = More results
- To narrow the search: More keywords = Fewer results

When we start with a very broad search, "online learning" and every time a keyword is added, we narrow the search further, retrieving a smaller number of results.

Let's take a closer look at two of these searches.

Broadening Your Search

Search #1: "online learning" AND "higher education"

Using fewer keywords, we get a large number of results. It also means that we're searching a very broad topic - anything to do with "online learning" and "higher education." If that's what we want at this stage of the research, great! If not, let's try a narrower search in attempt #2.

Narrowing Your Search

Search #2: "online learning" AND "higher education" AND group AND collaboration

Using more keywords, we get fewer results. We're also finding results that cover a much narrower topic: Group collaboration in online learning in higher education.

Try it: Searching Omni and Revising Your Search

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