INTRODUCTION TO SEARCH TECHNIQUES
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BOOLEAN OPERATORS:

You may not have heard the term “Boolean Operators,” but you have probably used these operators in your searching without knowing what they are called. These operators can be used in searching a variety of resources, including Jernigan Library’s online catalog (Oasis), the more than one hundred electronic databases the library has access to, as well as when using search engines to surf the WWW.

Boolean Operators include “AND,” “OR,” “AND NOT,” or “NOT.” Some search engines will use different terms for these operators. For instance, some search engines will use the “+” instead of “AND” and the “-“ instead of “NOT.” Most search engines and electronic databases have “Help” features which will explain to you how to search that particular database or use that particular search engine most effectively.

AND

Using this operator, you can limit your search results. This operator specifies that both terms on either side of the operator must occur in the records which the computer returns to you as results. For instance, if you were to search for: alcohol AND pregnancy, your results should include only those records that contain both words. If you are finding that you are getting too many results, you might try narrowing your search by using this operator.

OR

This operator allows you to expand your search results, search for variant spellings of words or related terms. This operator specifies that results will contain one or the other, or both search terms connected by the operator. For instance, if you search for dreams OR daydreams, the computer will return all records in which either or both terms appear. If you find that you are getting too few results, you might expand your search by using the OR operator to search for variant spellings or synonyms of your search term.

NOT or AND NOT

This operator also narrows your results, though to a lesser extent than the AND operator. When you use this operator, you are telling the computer to exclude a certain term from the records it retrieves. For instance, the search crime NOT murder will return records that include the term crime but it will not include records with the term murder in them.

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NESTING:

Nesting is a technique which allows you to combine multiple terms connected by Boolean Operators. This type of search utilizes ( )’s to group terms together. For instance, you might be looking for information on rodeos in Texas and New Mexico. If you type in your search as: texas OR new mexico AND rodeos, the database or search engine will probably search first for texas AND rodeos, then search for new mexico. In other words, your results will include records about rodeos in Texas as well as records about New Mexico in general. One way to remedy this situation is to use nesting. In the case of the previous search you would use: (texas OR new mexico) AND rodeos. This search would return results about rodeos in Texas or New Mexico.

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TRUNCATION:

This is a technique for searching variant spellings of a root words. The symbols used are usually an asterisk, *, or an exclamation point, !, or a question mark, ?. You may be looking for results about poetry and poetics. You might type in poet*. Results would include records with the following terms: poet, poets, poetry, poetics, etc. Be careful when using truncation, you may have a root word which is contained within completely unrelated terms. For example, cit* would return the following results: citizen, citizenry, city, citadel, citrus, citation, etc.

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WILDCARDS:

Some databases and search engines allow the use of wildcards as a search technique. Symbols for wildcards will vary across search tools. A wildcard allows you to replace certain characters in your search string which in turn allows you to find variant spellings of terms. For instance, you might search for col*r. Your results would include records with the word color and the word colour.

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A NOTE ABOUT SEARCH STRATEGIES:

In order to avoid frustration when you are in the process of searching, you should always do a “pre-search analysis.” This simply means that you should have a list, whether on actual paper or merely in your head, of alternative search terms upon which you can call if your initial search does not return appropriate results.

Remember, if you are having difficulty finding relevant materials, the Reference Librarian is always available to give assistance. Please do not hesitate to ask for help.

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Last updated 6/8/06