With a handful of helpful tips, you can generate search results in a library database to meet your information needs. Although this list is not exhaustive, the most common search strategies utilized in electronic searching are listed below.

Capitalization and Stop Words

For the majority of databases, capitalization and some short words are ignored. For example, searching [The United States of America] will return the same results as if you searched [united states america].

Common words "stop words" that databases ignore:

as
at
and
be
by

for
from
is
it
the

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are terms used to manipulate search results. The most common Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT.

OR: "OR means more," is a clever way to remember how this Boolean operator works. Unlike in common English where "or" often indicates exclusion, OR in Boolean logic increases the number of results you'll receive from a database. For example, if you search [football OR soccer], you're telling the database that you want results that contain either the word football OR the word soccer. If a record contains the word football, but not soccer, it will show up in your search results, and vice versa. Although the Boolean operator OR will increase the number of search results, it is useful when searching for a topic that might have multiple synonyms. Another example would be ["climate change" OR "global warming"]. The chart below shows examples of article titles that might appear if you search a database for titles containing the word "Facebook" OR the word "Privacy."

Boolean operator OR venn diagram

AND: Although we often associate the word "and" with more, in Boolean logic AND actually means less. Using AND tells the database that you want results that contain both the connecting search terms. For example, if you search [Facebook AND privacy], you're telling the database that you only want results that contain both the words Facebook AND privacy. If a record does not contain both, or only contains one of the terms, it will not show up in your search results. The chart below shows examples of article titles that might appear if you search a database for titles containing the word "Facebook" AND the word "Privacy."

Boolean operator AND venn diagram

NOT: This Boolean operator most accurately reflects its common English usage. NOT forces a database to wholly exclude a particular search term. For example, if you search [Renaissance NOT Michelangelo], you're telling the database that you want search results that contain the word Renaissance, but if they also contain the word Michelangelo, you do not want it. Can you see how this might narrow a search too much? An article or book might not be about Michelangelo at all, but if his name is mentioned even once, you'll exclude a potentially useful source. NOT can be very helpful in narrowing a search, but it may also eliminate useful information. Use with caution! The chart below shows examples of article titles that might appear if you search a database for titles containing the word "Facebook" but NOT the word "Privacy."

Boolean operator NOT venn diagram

Venn diagrams described

Quotation Marks

Using quotation marks in a search tells the database that you are looking for an exact phrase. Because of this, you only need to use quotation marks for a concept that is two or more words. For example if you were researching Social Security, using quotation marks ["social security"] would tell the database that you only want search results where Social Security appears as a phrase.

Without the quotation marks, the database actually reads your search as [social AND security]. This is an important concept to remember. Library databases will interpret strings of terms without any quotation marks or Boolean operators as being connected by the term AND. For example a search for [climate change glaciers] is translated by the database as [climate AND change AND glaciers]. This could return search results that are unrelated to your information need.

Truncation and Wild Cards

Truncation refers to shortening a word or eliminating characters in order to pick up variant terms in a database. Symbols are used for truncation. The most common symbols are the asterisk (*), the question mark (?), the pound sign (#), or a dollar sign ($). These symbols vary from database to database but are often indicated on a database's "Help" page. Examples of truncation:

child* - includes child and children
disab* - includes disabled, disability, disabilities
environment* - includes environment, environments, environmental, environmentalist, etc.

Wildcards are used for internal truncation. This will replace a single character in a search term. This is useful if a word has a letter difference between American English and British English or if a word is irregularly pluralized. The symbols used are different from regular truncation, but can be determined on a database's "Help" page. Examples of using the wildcard:

wom?n - includes woman and women
colo?r - includes color and colour