The Reeves Library’s catalog and databases work best when using Boolean operators.
AND, OR, NOT can be added in your search to broaden or narrow your results.
*The operators must be capitalized in order for the database and catalog to know it’s an operator.
|
Operator
|
Purpose
|
|
AND
|
Both terms must be found in the results (e.g., cat AND dog)
|
|
OR
|
One or all terms will be found (e.g., dog OR cat)
|
|
NOT
|
Specified words will be eliminated from the search (e.g., peanut butter NOT jelly)
|
Research example:
climate change OR global warming) AND (toxic waste OR pollution)
*The above example will retrieve results related to the topic of toxic waste and climate change. Related terms can be grouped with the OR operator so that one or both of them will be found; the OR operator will broaden your search. Note how parentheses are used to group the sets of words together.
