PILOTS Quick Search Tips

When you search the PILOTS database, CSA Illumina treats words you enter as an exact phrase unless you place the words "and" or "or" between them:

• AND - Narrow search and retrieve records that have all of the words it separates
• OR - Broaden search and retrieve records that have any of the words it separates

If you are searching for a particular author, use the format:

• Lastname, Firstname

or alternatively:

• Lastname, AB or Lastname, A B or Lastname, Firstname B

CSA also offers the following search guides:

• A Quick Reference Card (PDF)
• An online audio Quick Search Tutorial

Other things to consider:

• What information are you looking for? Consider stating this in writing in two or three sentences before you search to help narrow things down.
• Identify general concepts about the information that you're looking for, and ask how they might relate to the search terms that you might use.
• After you've located a couple of relevant articles, consider using the descriptors attached to the record to locate similar records.
• If your search terms are not locating what you are searching for, consider using the PILOTS thesaurus to come up with indexed terms to try.
• Are you interested in a specific author's work? If so, then that might be a good place to start. You might use articles by this author to discover other relevant documents to satisfy your research needs.

Need further assistance? Talk to your institution's reference librarian!