Advanced Operators

Cast a wide net with a Google search. My strategy is to design a strong search query using advanced operators (this and this are good guides on the subject) I find these operators particularly useful:

• AND limits results to resources that include all terms joined with this boolean
• OR is helpful when you want to limit your scope, but are unsure which term is best suited for your search (e.g. redlining OR urban renewal)
• “ “ yields results with an exact phrase. Used for a single word, it will guarantee that the word is included in results
• -site: will only provide results from a specific site or domain. I use this when I want results from specific sources, like government or academic sources. Sometimes google yields better search results for content on specific websites than an internal search bar. Examples:
  • -site:nyu.edu will only show results on websites that end with nyu.edu
  • -site:.gov will only show results from U.S. government websites

The Advanced Search menu is very useful:

If your search results get flooded with recent events, here are some suggestions for limiting your time range using both tools and operators.

I often like to do a quick visual scan of the Images page to see if anything stands out as particularly useful. Note that Images results can miss important pages, so don’t rely on it alone.

Google Books

I had success with finding archival source materials, including maps, with Google Books. Many historical government documents and reports have been scanned and uploaded to that database and they may include detailed maps of an area.

Google Earth

Google Earth gives access to historical satellite data and has a suite of useful research tools, including an easy way to map spatial data.