How to Use WorksonWork Basic Search

Subject and Title
Title
Author
Super Keyword

Subject and Title Search
A researcher may search for word(s) in the title of an article, book, or cataloged web site, and/or word(s) in our subject headings list. To see the WorksOnWork subject headings list, click on the link on the basic search page.

Hint: To search using the WorksOnWork subject headings, cut and paste or type them exactly as they appear in the list.

Hint: Superfluous words. The WorksOnWork database indexes articles, books, and web sites concerning the world of work. Including words such as employee, workers, human resources, or industrial relations may result in unwanted or limited results. The search workplace violence will not retrieve records using the terms worker violence or employee violence. Search violence to retrieve all such records.

Terms-of-art: Where there is a specific term-of-art in the industrial relations field, it is necessary to include all the words in the phrase. Search an exact phrase - employment at will; equal employment; workers compensation

Finding words and phrases

Type the word you want to find (feedback) or type a phrase (360 degree feedback) to find those words, in that order.

To find variations of word stems, type an asterisk * at the end of one or more words (correction* retrieves "correctional facilities" and "corrections officers").

Use the symbol & between words or phrases to represent the Boolean operator AND. Include a space before and after the symbol. (academic tenure & promotion)

Use the symbol / between words or phrases to represent the Boolean operator OR. (grievance arbitration / alternative dispute resolution)

Use the symbol ! between words or phrases to represent the Boolean operator NOT. (health care ! health care reform)

Use the proximity operators w# (within) to find words near each other. Proximity search is available only for words, not phrases. (health w5 privacy)

Use the proximity operator p# (preceding) to find words near each other. Proximity search is available only for words, not phrases. (erisa p10 reform)

To search for a term which is a complete item with no additional text before or after, in other words, an exact complete match, precede it with an equal sign (=). A subject title search =employee handbooks finds only that complete term. It does not find just "employee" or just "handbooks" or that phrase embedded in other text. In this example a searcher may not want any materials that concern other types of handbooks such as union handbooks or mediation handbooks. The searcher is looking for those materials with "employee handbooks" as the subject heading.

Word order - Words joined by & / ! are evaluated in left-to-right order: sexual orientation & sexual harassment / same-sex harassment finds items that contain the terms sexual orientation and sexual harassment, or items that contain the term same-sex harassment.

Use parentheses to control evaluation order: sexual orientation & (sexual harassment / same-sex harassment) finds items that contain the terms sexual orientation and sexual harassment or sexual orientation and same-sex harassment.

Stop Words: Using prepositions or prepositional phrases will often result in no records. If a researcher wants to find materials about retirement in Canada, the word "in" is unnecessary. Search retir* & canad* This search will retrieve records with derivatives of the word stem retir - retiring, retirement, retire, retired AND derivatives of the word stem canad - Canada, Canadian

Note that terms of art containing prepositional phrases must be searched as an exact phrase. Search on the job training

Title Search

A researcher may search for any word(s) in only the title of an article, book, or cataloged web site by using the same connectors and wildcard used in subject and title search. To find the article "The Effect of Interrater and Self-Other Agreement on Performance Improvement Following Upward Feedback" when a researcher only recalls the terms interrater and performance contained in the title search interrater & performance

Author Search

When searching records for specific authors use the last name first, then the first name. Johnson John If you only know the first initial, you must use the wildcard asterisk Johnson J* If the researcher retrieves too many unwanted records, or is unsure of a spelling, use an alphabetical range search. For example, if you are looking for the author Alan Johnson but you are not sure how Alan is spelled, search johnson a : johnson az This will get all records of authors with the last name Johnson and first name starting with the letter A.

If you are looking for an author with a hyphenated name and are not sure of the name order, use the wildcard asterisk at the end of the search. To find Honeywell-Johnson, Judith type johnson j* This search will find Johnson J in that order anywhere in the
author's name.

Super Keyword

The Super Keyword search combines the subject, title, and author searches. If you are looking for Prof. John Fossum's labor relations textbook, search Fossum J* & labor relations. You will retrieve the record for the book LABOR RELATIONS: DEVELOPMENT, STRUCTURE, PROCESS.

How to Use WorksonWork Advanced Search

Using the AND OR NOT Drop Down Menus
Publication Year
Publication Type
Peer Reviewed Journals
Journal Title

Using the AND OR NOT Drop Down Menus
One method of more sophisticated searching is to search more than one field simultaneously. Under each search category is a drop down menu containing a choice of three Boolean operators - AND, OR, NOT. The default Boolean operator is AND.

By typing in your search term(s) in one field, selecting AND, OR, NOT from the drop down menu and typing an additional word or phrase in another field, your search will be narrowed. The search boxes are evaluated from top to bottom.

A researcher recalls that she read a recent article in Journal of Labor Research concerning using technology in teaching by Prof. John Budd. To conduct this search, type technology in the subject field, select AND from the drop down menu and under author type Budd, select AND from the drop down menu and under publication date type 2002, choose AND from the drop down menu and type Journal of Labor Research in the Journal Title field. The result of this search is the article entitled "Teaching Labor Relations: Opportunites and Challenges of Using Technology."

Publication year
Finding a Date
You may search a publication year by typing the year. Search a date range by separating the years with a colon. 1998 : 2002 This search retrieves materials published in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002.

Use the symbol / between years to find publication dates in one year or another. 1988 / 1996 / 2000 This search retrieves materials published in 1988 or 1996 or 2000.

You may also search dates by using the greater than-less than symbols ><. >1998 finds dates after 1998. <1998 finds dates before 1998.

Publication type

A researcher may search by publication type only. If looking for a specific format such as an e book, you may limit your search to just e books by selecting that format from the Publication Type drop down menu. To find an e book on the subject of contingent workers, type contingent workers in the subject field and select e book from the publication type drop down menu to retrieve the e book entitled "The Employment Recruitment and Retention Handbook."

A researcher may want to see all the materials owned by the Reference Room in a specific format. For instance you may want to look at all the HRIR Ph.D. theses. Select Ph.D. Thesis from the publication drop down menu, place your cursor in any other field and press enter or submit query and you will retrieve the list of our collection of Ph.D. theses.

Peer Reviewed Journals
The Reference Room collection includes both peer reviewed or scholarly journals and human resources/industrial relations practitioner journals and magazines. A researcher may select from the drop down menu the choice of searching Peer Reviewed to search only those journals that have been peer reviewed or deemed scholarly in nature. The default is searching for all indexed journal articles. Peer Reviewed Journal List

Journal Title
A researcher may narrow a search to articles in a specific journal title. The Reference Room journal holdings list is a hypertext link next to this search field. Cut and paste or type the titles exactly as they appear in the list. To conduct a search for Prof. Morris Kleiner's recent article about union decline published in the Journal of Labor Research, Using AND as the default connector, type union decline in the subject field, Kleiner in the author field, and Journal of Labor Research in the Journal Title field to retrieve the article "Intensity of Management Resistance: Understanding the Decline of Unionization in the Private Sector."

The journal title search is also useful if a researcher would like to see what has been published recently in a specific journal. This search may be done by combining a journal title with a publication year. Type Industrial and Labor Relations Review in the Journal Title field and type 2002 in the Publication Year field. This will retrieve all the articles published in 2002 in the Industrial and Labor Relations Review.