Quimby Memorial Library: History of Art Therapy Resource Guide: Conducting Effective Historical Research

Create a Search Using Commands

This is an example of how you can build your search using the commands known as Boolean Operators.

The first part of running a successful search is to isolate the keywords from your question that you will need in your search.

Text with highlights over keywords. 'How can I implement art therapy in the treatment of cancer patients who are terminal?" with "art therapy," cancer, and terminal highlighted

Vin diagram with three circles and each has 'art therapy' AND cancer AND terminal. Then an explanation that says 'narrow your search results to include all of your keywords using AND. Expand your search using OR to find like terms.

Vin diagram with 2 circles and AND inbetween them. Text says 'AND narrows your search'

Combining search terms with AND:

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

For example

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" yields 2,500 results

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" AND cancer yields 340 results

Vin diagram with 4 circles and OR in the inbetween of each with the text 'OR expands your search'

Combining search terms with OR:

Expands your search and increases number of results.
This is a great way to add additional synonyms into a search.

For example

A search in PubMed for terminal yields 677,429 results

A search in PubMed for terminal OR hospice yields 712,005 results

Two circles one says therapist and the other says artist. Artist has a line through it next to the word NOT. Text says 'NOT narrows your search'

Combining search terms with NOT

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

For Example

A search in PubMed for therapist yields 52,654 results

A search in PubMed for therapist NOT artist yields 52,570 results

Please keep in mind you usually don't want to start a search with NOT in it. You will most likely want to add NOT only in situations where you are finding an overwhelming amount of literature that specifically doesn't answer your questions because a term is being included too often.

Two overlapping circles as a vin diagram with the terms Art and therapy in each. Inbetween them "art therapy" represents quotation marks. The text says 'quotes narrow your search. Keep in mind when using quotation marks, you will only find the exact phrase listed.'

Use Quotation Marks to:

Narrow your search.
Combine search terms that are more than single worlds.

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.

For example

A search in PubMed for art therapy yields 46,859 results

A search in PubMed for "art therapy" yields 2,590 results

Boolean operators are the commands that you can use in databases and search engines to specify exactly what you are looking for. These work so well because they are the coding language the developers use.

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.

Useful Terms and Subject Headings for Art Therapy

When conducting research you will oftentimes need to include various synonyms for a word or phrase. In the case of "art therapy," especially when looking at its history, it might be important to include other ways the practice has been refereed to. Here are some terms that might help, but please keep in mind this is not necessarily an exhaustive list.

Expressive therapy
Art and Mental Illness
Art and Mental Health
Arts - Therapeutic use
Art - Psychology
Art-based intervention
You might need to combine a couple or a few terms with Boolean to help refine your search. An example of this is:
- Drawing AND therapy
You can also narrow your search by combining your term with other important elements. An example of this is:
- Art therapy - history

Quick Tips for Searching Google

Be clear about what you need and eliminate any extraneous information or words. This means you don't want to type in full sentences or questions, just pull the key words or phrases (just like you would in academic databases).
Boolean Operators work in Google too. See the information in "Create a Search Using Commands" to find out how these work.
Think about who else would care about this information and how they (and therefore you) might phrase it. Looking for information on the history of art therapy? You might want to search "expressive therapy" in addition to "art therapy" since the foundation of art therapy is expressive therapy.
Don't know much about your topic yet? Start broad and work your way down. For instance, if you are researching a specific founder that you don't know anything about yet, you might want to start by looking at a background resource about them, like Wikipedia. Then you can narrow down your search terms as you gather more information and can properly adapt your search.

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. At Southwestern we have Taylor & Francis for searching articles and EBSCO for searching ebooks. There are other useful, freely accessible, databases as well. An example of a useful free database is PubMed.

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, see below for how to set up SLC 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

Finding Academic Articles at SWC This guide walks you through how to access articles through Southwestern's subscriptions.
Finding Ebooks at SWC This guide walks you through finding Ebooks through Southwestern's subscriptions.
PubMed This is the largest biomedical database, with much literature dedicated to mental health and psychology. The database is free to use, but keep in mind that not all articles will be freely accessible.
Google Scholar This is a database searching what Google has deemed "academic literature." It is searching across the entire web, but we do not know the algorithms that Google uses to decide what they deem academic. This resource will have articles, conference proceedings, presentations, etc. Unlike academic databases, there are not many filters you can utilize to narrow down your results.