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Indigenous Health Information in New Mexico

Indigenous Community Terminology Search Starter

You can utilize this search strategy to find resources that discuss Indigenous communities, but keep in mind that once you start to narrow your topic you will need to adapt the search to include your health variables.

Check mark icon.Quick Tip: You can literally copy and paste this search string into a database or search engine.

"Indians, North America*" OR "North American Indian*" OR "American Indian*" OR "Native American*" OR "Alaska Native*" OR ("urban Indian*" NOT "India") OR "American Indian/Alaska Native" OR "American Native" OR (state AND recognized AND (tribe OR tribes)) OR (benefit AND eligible AND (tribe OR tribes)) OR (federally AND recognized AND (tribe OR tribes)) OR ("North American" AND aborig*) OR "native Canadian*" OR "Indigenous Canadian*" OR "aboriginal Canadian*" OR ("North American" AND Indigenous) OR "first Nation*"

We recommend this search string to start your search, however individual tribal/Indigenous/Native American community names should always be part of your search strategy. 

Check out the Academic Health Sciences Libraries Outreach and Engagement with Native American Communities search string, comprised of specific Indigenous and Native American community names as part of a thorough search.  

See the resources listed for your user type on this guide in order to better understand where this search can be applied.

Create a Search Using Commands

1. Isolate keywords from your topic.

Image that lists the question "How does cultural competence impact the health care system in the United States? With cultural competence, health care, and United States highlighted to show how to pull them out in a search.

2. Narrow your search results to include all of your keywords using AND.

"United States" AND cultural competence AND health care

Venn diagram that has "United States" AND "Cultural Competence" AND "Health Care" to try and display how when using Boolean Operators the three intersect.

3. Expand your search using OR to find like terms.

"United States" AND "cultural competence" AND ("health care" OR healthcare)

Combining search terms with AND:

  • Narrows your search, reducing the number of results.
  • Makes the search focus more specifically on your topic.

Vin diagram that indicates how AND intersects (example written out in text in this box).

For Example

A search for "United States" yields 314,000 results results

A search for cultural competence yields 1,700 results

A search for cultural competence AND "United States" yields 429 results

Combining search terms with OR:

  • Expands your search and increases number of results.

Vin diagram that indicates how OR intersects (example written out in text in this box).

For Example

A search for "health care" yields 263,000 results

A search for healthcare yields 170,000 results

A search for "health care" OR healthcare yields 317,000 results

Combining search terms with NOT:

  • Narrows your search, decreasing your search results.
  • Tells the search to exclude certain terms.

Diagram that indicates how not works, when you use it for by saying NOT family you find caregiver without the word family (example written out in text in this box).

For Example

A search for caregiver yields 13,300 results

A search for caregiver NOT family yields 6,700 results

Use Quotation Marks to:

  • Narrow your search.
  • Combine search terms that are more than a single word.

This shows the search engine that you want the terms to be found together. The search will look for exactly what you place in the quotation marks, so be sure there are no mistakes.

Vin diagram that indicates how quotation marks keep phrases together (example written out in text in this box).

For Example

A search for United States yields over 500,000 results

A search for "United States" yields about 300,000 results

Use Truncation to:

  • Expand your search.
  • Give your search tool flexibility to find alternate endings for your search term.

Diagram that indicates how truncation works (example written out in text in this box).

Search engines match your exact terms to results; they will not automatically find an alternate version of it. Truncation tells the search to match the root of your term and gives it freedom to find whatever endings it can.

For Example

A search for cultural yields 36,000 results

A search for cultur* yields over 95,000 results

These commands are called Boolean Operators.

Boolean

1. denoting a system of algebraic notation used to represent logical propositions, especially in computing and electronics.

What does that mean for you?

If you are having a hard time finding what you need, use the Boolean Operators outlined here to more efficiently search databases.

No matter where you are searching - the catalog, Google Scholar, a database you will want to use Boolearn Operators to refine your search to your specifications.

We are indebted to the Butler University Library's And/Or/Not box and to the Sarah Lawrence Create a Search Using Commands box for some of the content displayed here.

Keyword and Subject Searching

Keywords

Subjects

Natural language words that describe your topic

Pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" that describe what an item is about 

More flexible search - looks for anywhere the words appear in the record

Less flexible search - only the subject fields will be searched

Broader search, but may yield irrelevant results

Targeted search; results are usually more relevant to the topic, but may miss some variations

Keyword searching is how we normally start a search. Pull out important words or phrases from your topic. 

Subject Terms and/or Headings are pre-defined terms that are used to describe the content of an item. These terms are a controlled vocabulary and function similarly to hashtags on social media.

We are indebted to the MIT What are subject headings and keywords? box and Sarah Lawrence Finding Resources Guide for some concepts displayed here.

In the Catalog, subject headings are displayed under "Description" in the record of an item. Click on the arrow to the left of "Description" and then scroll down to the section called "Subjects."

 

 

 

In the Databases, subject headings may be listed as Descriptors, Subjects and/or Subject Headings and are typically located in the Abstract and/or Details of an article.

Google and Academic Databases

Google, and more appropriately Google Scholar, can be valid places to search for articles and organizations. However, subject specific databases will have more advanced search options and articles. Here are some key differences between databases and Google.

  Library Databases Google Google Scholar
Types of
Information
You Can Find
  • Scholarly journal articles
  • Newspaper articles
  • Reviews
  • Theses & dissertations
  • Empirical evidence
  • Popular, commercial, educational websites
  • Organization websites
  • Directories
  • Current news & events
  • Few free journal articles
    & books (many academic publications are not free)
  • Educational websites
  • Theses & dissertations
  • Conference publications
    & presentations
  • Scholarly journal articles
    (but access will be restricted
    to free resources,
    so you will want to set up your Library Links)
Credibility & Review
  • Subject specific books
    and articles
  • Evaluated for accuracy
    and credibility
  • Lack of control allows
    anyone to publish
    material
  • Usually not evaluated for accuracy & credibility
  • Some resources evaluated
    for accuracy & credibility,
    but not through Google,
    so need to verify review process for each publication
Discovery
  • Database functionalities
    allow users to search
    for & find more relevant results
  • Less ability to search
    for & retrieve precise
    results
  • Not releasing 
    information on
    algorithms, paid
    products can float
    to the top
  • Less ability to search for
    & retrieve precise results
  • Not releasing information
    on algorithms, therefore
    it is not known why
    results float to the top

You can set up Google Scholar to see if you have full text access to articles provided by UNM libraries. Go to settings, search for University of New Mexico in "Library Links" and select it. Once this has been done you will see the "Check Full Text @ UNM" option in your results. A PDF with instructions is also listed below.

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