Search Tips - WR1010 - Elements of Writing - El Hamzaoui - Guides at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Boolean Operators

Source: University of Auckland Library, Auckland, NZ

Guide to using Boolean Operators
This guide from the American Public University Library provides brief and clear explanations and examples of using Boolean operators.

Ask a librarian: Searching and researching is what we do. Let us work with you to make your searching more productive.
Use search filters on the search results page. Some of the most common filters are:
1. Date
2. Source Format – book, journal, video
3. Source Type – Academic Journals, Magazines, Newspapers
4. Subject – Keywords and phrases found prominently in your search results. Add these as additional search terms.
Identify your topic’s key concepts and their synonyms: Add synonyms for your keywords and concepts to increase the number of relevant search results.
Use the FullTextFinder icon on the search results page. If you only have the summary/abstract of an article, click on the FullTextFinder to search all 200+ library databases for the full-text.
Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Submit an ILL request to get full-text journal articles, books and book chapters.
Check bibliographies for additional relevant sources.
Check “cited by” links on search results page.
Check “related articles” links on search results page.
Use Google search features to focus on one website type (e.g. .edu, .gov, .org, .au).
1. Examples:
  1. Community garden site:.gov
  2. Fauna site:.nz
Ask a librarian!

Use these search terms to narrow or broaden your search:

Term	Example	Result
AND	media AND bias	Narrows the search to entries containing both terms.
OR	beer OR wine	Broadens the search to entries containing either term.
NOT	bat NOT baseball	Excludes entries containing the second term.
“ ”	“social work”	Retrieves results containing the exact phrase in quotes.
?	globali?ation	Wildcard: Retrieves both globalization and globalisation.
*	doctor*	Truncation: Retrieves doctor, doctors, doctored.