Advanced Searching Techniques: Boolean

Boolean operators consist of AND, OR, NOT which are used to restrict searches in different ways.

The Boolean operator "AND" is used to join separate search terms together in order to find information that contains both search terms.

For example, if the search terms  "education reform" AND  "Texas" were to be searched, only results containing both search terms will appear.

 

This search would only bring up results that contain both search terms "education reform" and Texas.

Results that only contain the search term education reform with no mention of Texas will not be returned.

Also, results that only contain the search term Texas with no mention of education reform will not be return.

The Boolean operator "OR" is used between two separate search terms in order to find any information on either search term. For example, if the search term "education reform" OR the search term "Texas"  were to be searched, all results containing either search term will appear.

This search would bring up results that contain either search terms education reform OR Texas education. All results that contain the search term education reform will be returned. All results that contain the search term Texas education will be returned. This will give you the largest number of results.

The Boolean operator "NOT" is used to specify which search term you want to exclude from the information you are searching. For example, if the search terms "education reform" NOT "Texas" were to be searched, only "education reform" results not containing "Texas" will appear.

This search would bring up results that contain the search term education reform and have no mention of Texas.