Advanced searching techniques can help you fine-tune your searching and can get you more desirable results faster.
Boolean Operators
When searching, use the boolean operators AND, OR, NOT with the drop down menu on the advanced search screen, or include these operators between words on the basic library search screen. Boolean operators should be capitalized.
- AND: all terms entered must be present in the record. AND is always implied regardless of whether you include it in your search or not.
- e.g. The search organic farming or organic AND farming will return results that include both words only
- OR: any one term entered must be present in the record
- e.g. A search for cats OR dogs will return results that include either or both of the terms.
- NOT: the term entered cannot be present in the record
The NOT operator can be especially helpful to get rid of clutter you don't need in your results.- e.g. The search metal NOT music will look for results with the word metal, but won't return any results containing the word music.
- e.g. The search metal NOT music will look for results with the word metal, but won't return any results containing the word music.
Phrase Searching
Use quotation marks around words that you would like to keep together.
| Search | Results |
| "human evolution" | Must contain the phrase human evolution |
| human evolution | Must contain the word human and evolution; not necessarily together, though it may be prioritized as a phrase |
Wildcards and Truncation
The question mark (?) will match any one character. For example, the search:
defen?e
Will find results for defense or defence. This is great when there may be spelling variants of a particular term.
The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word. For example:
Ch*ter
Will find results for “Charter”, “Character”, “Chapter”, etc.
Truncation allows you to use the asterisk (*) at the end of a word, e.g.:
Child*
Will match all suffixes, so in this case results would include "child", "child's", and "children", among others.