Literature Database
Search Instructions
The National Clearinghouse on Families & Youth (NCFY) literature database contains abstracts of more than 15,000 publications that focus on youth and family issues. The database does not contain full-text publications, but information on obtaining a publication is generally included in the abstract. NCFY-produced publications are available here.
If a preliminary search gives you too many or too few results, you can use the following strategies to expand or narrow your search:
Select Appropriate Key Words or Phrases
Expand your search by using more general key words or phrases. “High school volunteering,” for example, is very specific and results would be limited to those publications using that exact phrase. To expand your search to include more publications, search for “volunteering” or “community service,” or search for other forms of the word “volunteering,” such as “volunteer” and “volunteers.” When you review the results, you can delete those publications that are not relevant.
Narrow your search by using more specific key words or phrases. Instead of searching for "schools," use "afterschool programs," for example, to yield fewer results.
Back to Search
Conduct Multiple Searches Within a Field
Conducting multiple searches within a field allows you to search for publications that have specific combinations of more than one term within a field.
You can use three different commands to narrow or expand your search within a field: “AND,” “OR,” and “NOT.” To activate these commands, use the following characters between terms within a field when conducting a search:
& (ampersand) = “and”
/ (slash) = “or”
! (exclamation point) = “not”
Use one of these characters, with no space preceding or following, between the terms that you are searching for within a field, as in the examples below.
To expand your search to publications in which either “mentor” or “mentoring” appear as key words in the abstract, enter "mentor/mentoring" into the subject keywords box.
You also can use the “/” command with multiple terms. For instance, typing “mentor/mentoring/mentors” in the key words field searches for publications in which any of the three terms appear.
To narrow your search to publications containing both “mentor” and “mentoring” in the abstract, enter "mentor&mentoring" into the subject keywords box. Typing "mentor&mentoring&mentors" searches for publications in which all three terms appear.
To narrow your search to publications containing the word “mentoring” but not the word “mentor” in the abstract, follow the instructions above, replacing the “/” command with the “!” command (“mentoring!mentor”).
Back to Search
Searching by Publication Year
Use the publication year field to limit your search to publications produced within a certain timeframe. You normally will use this field in combination with one or more other fields to narrow your search.
To search for publications that were produced before or after a certain year:
- Enter your search terms into the title, author, and/or key words boxes. Or leave the boxes blank if you want to search for all publications in your chosen years.
- Enter either the “greater than” symbol (>) to search for any year after the one you enter or the “less than” symbol (<) to search for any year before the one you enter. Then enter the year. For example, entering “>2000” searches for publications produced from 2001 forward that contain the information you entered in the title, author, and/or key words fields.
To search for publications that were produced between certain years, enter the years between which you wish to search, separated by a colon (:). For example, entering “1990:2001” searches for publications produced between January 1990 and December 2001.
Back to Search |
