Tips for searching: Boolean search tips

So what's Boolean searching?

• A powerful way of searching online in many library electronic databases and the Internet (Google)
• Boolean searching uses three "operators" to combine keywords into more powerful and direct searches.  
• The three basic Boolean operators are AND, OR and NOT. 
• The operator you choose to combine keywords determines how the search is performed and what information is returned.
• Capitalising Boolean operators is not necessary in all databases, but is a good habit.

There are a few more tricks that can help you create more effective search strings.

Try using advanced search tools such as:

• Exact Phrase (or the use of quotation marks)
• Stop Words
• Effective use of Nesting
• Wild Card and Truncation symbols
• Proximity Operators

For the most part, web search engines like Google do not respond to the use of these more advanced searching techniques but they can be useful in the Library Databases.

**DISCLAIMER** Databases and search engines vary and may use portions of Advanced Searching. This information is general tips & tricks and is meant to help in general use. Check the specific database or search engine (use the help screen) to see the operators it uses.

Quotation Marks or Phrases in Quotes AKA "Exact Phrase"

• Using "quotation marks" to enclose search terms forces the computer to find your search words EXACTLY as typed.
• Unlike using AND where search results will include both words ANYWHERE in the results, using quotation marks is designed to find your search words as an exact phrase in the order you have typed it.
• Example: “Microsoft Office” will only find results where Microsoft is followed directly by Office. It will not find an article with “in my office I use Microsoft” nor will it find “Office suite by Microsoft”.

Stop Words

• Google excludes common words in English and in other languages - it calls these "stop words".  
• Words such as the, I,  la (which means “the” in Spanish) and “de” (which means “of” in French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese).
• When Google ignores a term critical to your search, e.g., LA (common abbreviation for Los Angeles), enclose the term in quotes.  
  • USE [ jobs in central "LA" California ] NOT [ jobs in central LA California ]

Nesting

• Computers usually perform AND and NOT searches first, then OR searches.
• However, like in a math equation you can force the computer to perform the OR search first with Nesting. 
• Nesting uses parenthesis () to encase the OR search string forcing the computer to complete the OR search first then move on to the AND or NOT search.

(Georgia OR South Carolina) AND "Teaching Shortage"

So it first creates a large pool with the OR search then limits down the results with the AND or NOT search.

• The computer first searches for everything that has either Georgia OR South Carolina in it.
• Then, from that pool of results it finds items related to Teaching Shortages.

With this search people call electronic mail by several terms combining them in an OR search encased in parenthesis.

• This creates a pool of results that include all of the variations of terms for electronic mail.
• Then, it limits that pool to only those results that ALSO include security.

Wild Card and Truncation symbols

Searching using ? as a wildcard and * as a truncation symbol allows you to create searches where there are unknown characters, multiple spellings or various endings.  (Note neither symbol can be the first character in your search term). Generally speaking:

• The ? replaces a letter such as wom?n will find women and woman. 
• The * is for truncation or finding all of the various endings a word could have. So a search for work* will find all of the words that start with work but have different endings such as working, worked, workhorse etc.
  • Example: ski? OR ski*
    • Other words that might be used in an article about "ski" are skiing, skier, and skis. 
    • If you were to type skier, you would miss all the articles about skiing or people who like to ski. Therefore, you should use only the root word in a search string, and also use a wildcard to indicate that you want articles with all other forms of the word in them.
• Remember not to shorten the search term too much.
  • Example: Manufactur* will search manufacturing, manufacturer, manufacture, manufactures. 
  • Shortening Manufactur*  to Man*, you would receive information about manufacturing, but you would also receive information about management, manuals, mankind, manipulation, and people named Manuel, etc.

Proximity Operators

Proximity (aka positional) Operators are not really part of Boolean Logic, however they help formulate search statements.

Not all search engines or databases accept Proximity Operators, so make sure to read the help screen.

• Proximity Operators N# (near) and W# (within) will connect words together similar to using “quotation marks”. 
  • Using N# or W# followed by a number tells the computer you want the two search words to be found within a certain number of words of each other.
  • W# searches for your two keywords in the order of your search string with a maximum number of words between them.
    • Example: repressed W8 memory will find articles that have the word repressed first with up to eight words apart from the word memory. The key here is that repressed is BEFORE memory.
  • N# searches for your two keywords regardless of the order in which they appear.  They are separated but by a maximum of words apart.
    • Example: tax N5 codes will find articles that have the words tax and codes a maximum of five words apart no matter the order in which they appear.

• ADJ (adjacent to) is a way to link words into phrases like quotation marks. It tells the computer that the keywords must be found next to one another. Unlike quotation marks the words can appear in either order. 
  • This can be helpful if you are unsure if an author is listed by first name then last or the other way around.
    • Example: Ernest ADJ Hemingway will find both Ernest Hemingway and Hemingway, Ernest.