A Boolean search is a method of searching that uses special words called Boolean operators to combine or exclude keywords, helping you find more precise results in databases, search engines, and library catalogs.
Here’s a breakdown of the key operators and how they work:
Purpose: Narrows your search by combining terms so that results must include all of them.
Example:
cats AND dogs
→ Finds results that include both cats and dogs.
Purpose: Broadens your search by including results that have any of the terms.
Example:
college OR university
→ Finds results that include either the word college or university (or both).
Purpose: Excludes terms you don’t want in your results.
Example:
bats NOT baseball
→ Finds results about bats (the animal), but not baseball bats.
Purpose: Searches for an exact phrase.
Example:
"climate change"
→ Finds only results where the words climate and change appear together in that order.
Purpose: Groups terms and controls the order of operations—just like in math.
Example:
(college OR university) AND scholarships
→ Finds results about scholarships that mention either college or university.
Purpose: Acts as a wildcard for word variations.
Example:
educat*
→ Finds words like education, educate, educator, and educational.
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