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Interagency Youth Working Group

© 2003 Sean Hawkey, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2001 Jim Stipe/Lutheran World Relief, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2001 Jennifer Knox/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2006 Jane Koehler/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2005 Esther Braud, Courtesy of Photoshare

Resources on Youth Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS

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Basic Search Tips


1.  Simple Search: To perform a simple search on the Youth Interagency Working Group database, enter your search term and click the "Search" button.  

All resource types (Documents, Photos, Communication Materials, and Organizations/Web Sites) are searched.  To restrict your search to a specific resource, (e.g., Documents) check the box to the left of the resource name and click "Search".

When performing a simple search (from the IYWG home page or from the simple search page), the fields searched are:

  • keywords
  • title
  • photo caption
  • author or corporate author
  • photographer name
  • abstract

2.  Phrase Search: Search for a phrase by placing the term within quotation marks.

Placing quotation marks around the phrase "adolescent health" narrows a search to only those records containing the phrase adolescent health. Be sure to do this when using a term that contains a hyphen, like "youth-friendly services" or "faith-based programs".

3.  Using AND, OR, NOT:  Construct a simple Boolean search using AND, OR, or NOT in the search box.  

If multiple words are entered without a Boolean operator, the default is AND.  For example, typing family planning searches for results that contain both family AND planning (not family OR planning), so you get fewer search results.

AND

The AND operator finds records where both terms exist in a single record.  To search for records that contain both of these phrases -  "adolescent health" and "West Africa" - type: "adolescent health" AND "West Africa"

OR

The OR operator finds a record if either of the terms exist in a single record and generally gives you more results.  To search for records that contain either "adolescent health" or just youth type:  "adolescent health" OR youth

NOT

The NOT operator excludes records that contain the term following NOT.  To search for documents that contain "adolescent health" but not "HIV" type: "adolescent health" NOT "HIV"

Note: The NOT operator cannot be used without other terms. For example, the following search will return no results: NOT "Africa" 

4.  Grouping.  Use parentheses to group search terms with Boolean operators to control the logic of the search. For example, to search for either "population" or "family" and "planning" use the search phrase:  (population OR family) AND planning

5.  Use the asterisk as a wildcard to truncate, or shorten, a word.

You must use at least the first three characters of the word.  For example, to search for report, reports, or reporter, you can type: report* 

6.  Prepositions (e.g.: in, out) or articles (a, an, the) can only be searched in a quoted phrase otherwise they are not searchable.

A search for in the middle will search only for middle.  You must search for "in the middle".

7.  Searching is case insensitive.  Searching JHU or jhu will retrieve the same results.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government or The Johns Hopkins University.