Electronic Searching: the nitty gritty.

Electronic Searching: the nitty gritty.

Keyword Searching: opening doors. • How does it work?

Boolean Logic • What is it? • The use of “AND,” “OR,” or “NOT” to expand or reduce keyword search results. • Let’s take a look…

Let’s take a look at a boolean search…

Red= Tectonic Plates Blue=Ocean Green=Forests Forests Tectonic Plates Oceans

Tectonic Plates If our search is “tectonic plates” we get this:

Oceans If our search is “oceans” we get this:

If our search is “tectonic platesOR oceans” we get this: Oceans Tectonic Plates

Tectonic Plates & Oceans Oceans Tectonic Plates If our search is “Tectonic Plates AND Oceans” we get this:

If we search for “oceans” and “forests” Forests oceans

We get this: forests oceans AND forests oceans

If we search for “tectonic plates” and “oceans” and “forests forests tectonic plates oceans

We get this: forests Tectonic plates, Oceans forests tectonic plates oceans

Boolean Searching: Conclusions • There are three boolean operators • AND • Often assumed, it reduces results • OR • Increases results • NOT • Reduces results

Search truncation • What in the heck is it? • The ability to enter the beginning of a word plus a symbol and get all the variants that come from that beginning. • In LibraryWorld and EBSCO the symbol is the asterisk, “*”.

Huh? • Example time: • hondur* would retrieve: • Honduras, honduran, hondureno, hondurena, hondurismo • histor* would get: • History, historical, historian, histories and more. • Can you name another word it would pick up?

Search truncation: is it for you? • Truncation works well in LibraryWorld and will increase your results. • It doesn’t necessarily work in search engines. • Look at the help pages to find out, or just experiment. • How about search engines?

Where to now? Worksheet

Electronic Searching: the nitty gritty.