Advanced Searching Tips & Tricks
Joining terms AND | OR | NOT (Boolean operators)
AND used to join keywords together (e.g. students AND food programs) (primary students AND food insecurity)
OR used to join synonyms together (e.g. primary students OR high school students)
NOT used to exclude words we don’t want (e.g. students NOT university)
Multiple operators can be used together (e.g. primary students OR high school students AND breakfast programs)
Wild Card Searching
Truncation/Wild card helps search for words with various endings. Can be a useful tool when you can’t remember exact spelling of a name or title
Truncation to combine variations of a word
- librar* = library OR libraries OR librarian
- child* = child OR children OR childhood
Wildcard for single letter spelling options
- school? = school OR schools
- wom?n = woman OR women
- p?ediatrics = pediatrics OR paediatrics
Phrases are identified by quotation marks
