The key concepts of your topic will provide some initial keywords. You can then think of some alternative keywords using synonyms, acronyms, and alternate spellings. This video below gives a very short demonstration of this.

This video has closed captions.

Try combining your keywords in different ways. This can help you broaden or narrow your search an ensure your results are more relevant.

Using the advanced search option on Library Search gives you more control over your search. You can connect words in different ways – there are three Boolean operators that help you connect words – AND, OR, NOT.  Below is an example of a search combinations.

We want articles that are about reading challenges or reading barriers relating to adults. 

In the search above we have first used the keyword "reading" and chosen that the word must be in the title of the resources being searched. We've then used the drop down option AND to combine that term with either of the words "barriers OR challenges" notice the Boolean operator OR is typed between the terms rather than using the drop-down option. This is because we want the resources we find to include word reading AND either of the words challenges or barriers. We've then also added another line using the drop-down AND with the word "adult" in any field.