Possible Problem:  Too Many Results

The other problem we sometimes have is getting hundreds of book titles in our list of results, many of which are not at all what we’re looking for.  In cases like this, the topic we typed in is probably too general.

Example:  A search in the library catalog on the topic computers results in over 1,500 titles.

Solution:  Make your topic more specific and focused, perhaps by adding more words.  For example, my search on the topic computers resulted in over 1500 results, on MANY different topics related to computers – hardware, software, programming, word processing, privacy issues, e-commerce, and so forth.  In this case, I need to be more specific about what I’m looking for, such as computer careers.  If I type in computers and career, I get about ten results, which is a much more manageable number of books to look at, and they’re all focused on my specific topic.