Do you have any tips on searching? I'm not getting what I want, and I'd like to make my search more precise?

How do Boolean operators work?

Answer

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) allow you to make catalog or database searches more precise and effective. Use AND or OR to specify multiple words in any field, any order. Use AND NOT to exclude words. The Advanced Search from of the catalog and most databases allows you to select the boolean operator you wish to use from the drop down menu next to the search box.

Examples from the Library Catalog:

stocks and bonds
stocks or bonds
stocks and not bonds

Multiple Words

When searching multiple words, the system will automatically supply the Boolean AND operator between each word; each of the words entered for the search will occur somewhere in the retrieved records though not necessarily in the order entered.

Examples from the Library Catalog:

(Both of these searches will retrieve the same results.)

university science department
university and science and department

Phrase Searches

Search for complete phrases by enclosing the phrase in quotation marks. Words will appear together in all results exactly as typed.

Example from Library Catalog:

"modern medicine"

Wildcards

We refer to the asterisk (*) as a wildcard. It matches any number of characters. Searching for therap* will find "therapeutic", "therapies", "therapist", "therapy", etc. You must type at least two charactes before the asterisk.

The queston mark (?) is another type of wildcard. You may use '?' to replace a single character anywhere within a word.

Examples from the Library Catalog:

* Wildcard:
environment* polic*
therap*

? Wildcard:
wom?n

Proximity Operators

The NEAR operator is used to retrieve records that contain the specified words or phrases within ten words of each other in the same indexed field. The WITHIN operator is similar to the NEAR operator, but allows the user to specify the maximum number of words that may appear between the specified words. WITHIN 10 and NEAR are equivalent.

Examples from the Library Catalog:

international near conference
fractal within 3 geometry

Field Limits

Field limits may be specified by selecting a field limit from the selection list. These limits appear before the word or phrase to be searched. A field limit causes the system to search only the specified field for the specified word(s).

Field Limits and their meanings:

Author: Search only author fields
Title: Search only title fields
Subject: Search only subject fields
Note: Search only note fields
Subject: Search only subject fields

Grouping

Keyword search results are usually grouped by relevance to bring the most likely titles to the top of the list. Each group represents a similar level of relevance and results are sorted within the group by date or title. To get an ungrouped result set, use boolean operators to form a complex query.

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