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UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

EDEL 486: Teaching Social Studies

Video: Google Advanced Search and Lateral Reading for Source Evaluation

Watch this short video to learn more about using source evaluation strategies to do better searches online:

Search Strategy Quick Tips

Search Strategy Quick Tips

  • If the date the website was published or last updated matters for your topic, use advanced search options in Google to limit your search by date updated.
  • Keywords are essential.  Try to use keywords that would be used by educators or scholars, that will help you find sources that are more academic in nature.
  • Brainstorm synonyms and alternate terms to try as keywords if you don't like the results of your first search.  Try different combinations of keywords until you find sources you want to use. 

Google Advanced Search Hints

Use Google Advanced Search to help you limit your internet search to get more focused results. Examples of useful search limits are: domain name (for example, search only .edu, .gov, or .org sites to eliminate commercial webpages) this exact phrase (keeps all the words in a phrase together; putting the phrase in quotation marks also does this) none of these words (helps you eliminate words you don't want to see in your results list; using a minus sign also does this)