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University Library DePaul Library

The Silk Road & Ancient Trade (Crash Course World History)

How many artifacts or sites can you spot in this 10-minute crash course on the history of the Silk Road?

Background Sources

Advanced Search Tips and Tricks

Use Boolean Operators:

  • They connect your search terms and can narrow or broaden your search results.
  • The three basic boolean operators are: ANDOR, and NOT
  • Connecting terms with AND will:
    • narrow your search results
    • tell the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting records
  • Connecting terms with OR will:
    • broaden your search results telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the resulting records
    • connect two or more similar concepts (synonyms)
  • Using NOT before terms will prevent the terms from appearing in your search results

Why use Boolean operators?

  • It helps to focus a search, especially when your topic contains multiple search terms.
  • To connect various pieces of information to find exactly what you're looking for.
  • To search for spelling variants of a name, object or location.

Examples:

  • Silk road OR silk route 
  • Han dynasty OR Tang dynasty
  • Tarim Basin OR Xianjiang OR China or silk road  AND mummy or mummies or "Beauty of Loulan"
  • Caves OR grottos OR grottoes or temples AND Mogao or Dunhuang
  • Buddhism AND transmission or travel

Search for phrases using quotation marks

Adding quotation marks around two or more words will tell the library catalog or databases to search for those terms in that particular order. 

Examples: 

  • "Beauty of Loulan"
  • "Tang Dynasty"
  • "Material Culture"

Use Truncation

Truncation is a technique that allows you to search various word endings simultaneously. ​Truncation is commonly represented by an asterisk *

Why use truncation?'

To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an * (the symbol above the 8 on your computer). The database will return all forms of that word. Using the asterisk after the root of a world will allow you to find more material related to your subject.

Examples:

  • Buddh* will pull up resources that contain the words: Buddhist, Buddhists, Buddhism
  • Mumm* will pull up resources containing mummy or mummies

Research Guides

Explore beyond this guide to find more resources related to your topic.