Boolean Search Strategies AND, OR, or NOT
You can use Boolean search strategies to include or exclude specific search terms. Within Quick Search you would use them on the same search line. For example, if you want to retrieve all references written by "N. Copernicus" or "D. Fossey" that include the keyword "dolphins". At the Quick Search Text to Search for you would type: "Copernicus" or "Fossey dolphins". The AND Boolean between "Fossey dolphins" is implied. Advanced Search provides drop down menus to select Boolean strategies.
AND
By default, all terms entered are connected with the AND Boolean.
This connector finds references in which term 1 AND term 2 appear.
If you wish to search for papers written about "whales" which were published in
"1997" you need only enter "whales 1997", for
example:
Text to Search for : whales
1997
performed as "whales" AND "1997"
Your search should result in a reference similar to the example below.
| Your search on whales 1997 resulted in 1 references. Enter a new search |
| Displaying references 1 through 1 0 references marked |
Craig J. Discovering whales and dolphins. New Jersey: Troll Associates; 1990: 1997
OR
The OR connector finds references in which either term 1 OR
term 2 appear. OR will also find references containing both terms 1
and 2. OR is useful for finding references pertaining to several
topics of interest. Use this Boolean to find all references that are about
"whales" or were published in "1997". If you are interested in
papers written about "whales" OR "1997" you
would enter "whales" OR "1997".
Text to Search for : whales OR 1997
NOT
The NOT connector eliminates specific references from your
search. It finds references containing term 1 but NOT
term 2. If you are interested in papers written about
"whales" that were NOT written in "1997" you would
enter "whales" NOT "1997".
Text to Search for : whales NOT 1997
You can place up to 9 search terms in the Text to search for
box.
Text to Search for : whales dolphins bottlenosed growth etc.
| TIP: Use no punctuation when typing in a Quick Search string of search terms. |
Multi Boolean use:
You can use AND, OR, or NOT to include/exclude specific terms. For example,
Search : All databases
from Quick Search,
Text to Search for : keyword1 and keyword2 not author or year1 or year2
from Advanced Search add the brackets,
Data to Locate: {keyword1} and {keyword2} not {author} or {year1} or {year2}