Assignment Calculator

• Need background info? Credo Reference is a great alternative to Wikipedia. Why? You will find published, specialized encyclopedia articles here that can give you a thorough introduction to unfamiliar aspects of your research topic. 

• Need books? Try Lesley's @LL Search, which searchs ALL library materials but allows you to limit your search to books available at Lesley's libraries,if that is what you are looking for! Or, search the FLO catalog. As a member of the Fenway Libraries Online (FLO) consortium, you have access not only to Lesley University’s libraries, but to nine other Boston area academic libraries as well. Unless otherwise specified, you can request any item from a consortium member library to be delivered to Lesley’s own Sherrill Library for checkout.
• Looking for articles? Check out our Databases by Subject page to find the best database for your discipline (Or start with our favorite general database, Academic Search Premier).

Using AND

• Use AND to tie the keywords in your research topic/question together: women AND work

Using OR

• To search for SIMILAR keywords, use OR: (college OR university) AND stress

The above search tells the database that you want all of the articles that contain college AND stress, as well as all the articles that contain university AND stress.

When you use OR, you'll want to put your similar keywords into parentheses, to ensure that the database does not get them mixed up with the keywords you are tying together with AND.

Using truncation (*) and (?)

• Truncation allows you to search for the root of a word with any ending. Most databases use the asterisk (*), but FLO catalog uses the question mark (?).
• For example: When you type child*, it includes the following words: child, childs, children, childrens, childhood, childhoods, childless, childlessness, etc.

Still not clear on ANDs, ORs and Truncation? Watch the following video tutorial to see them in action!