Let us give an example of a search strategy.

Suppose you want to research the topic The debate between postmodernists and scientists on the nature of science. We'll work under the assumption that you do not know any titles or authors of books on the subject.

Let us first try to locate a book that is in LaSalle's library.

• You can go directly to the Connelly library webpage (http://www.lasalle.edu/library/) or go to the LaSalle homepage and click on the Connelly Library hyperlink.
• Next click on Library Catalog and then Search the Library Catalog.
• Next choose Keywords. (The Subject headings search is when you know the official category or categories that your topic is listed under. If you don't have this information, start with keyword.)

Now we must select the keywords to search. Select the most important words: postmodernist, science and scientist. The words "nature" and "debate" are too generic to be of value in this search, and prepositions (e.g. between, of) and articles (e.g. the, a) should always be avoided.

We are not interested here in all of postmodernism or in all of science but where the two meet (or in this case clash). To search the intersection of two topics, use the boolean operator and.

The terms science and scientist are derived from the same root. We can use the truncation feature of a search, in this case it would be to search for scien*. The * stands in for up to five letters that might follow, so "scien*" will serve as "science" and "scientist". Similarly we should search postmodern* to cover "postmodern," "postmodernist" and "postmodernism."

Before we over analyze the search, let's see what the current search turns up. At this stage, we would type into the search textbox: