Family and Human Services

Boolean searching can help you find accurate results quickly.

Use Boolean operators to link search words to get more accurate results.

Common Boolean Terms:

• AND - results will contain both terms
• OR - results will have at least one of the terms
• NOT - results will exclude this term
• * - use this symbol to truncate words (use this symbol and the results will have the root with all possible variations)
• "quotation marks" - results will contain the exact phrase. Excellent for searching titles.

Keep in mind that Boolean search operators vary from database to database. Click the "HELP" button (usually located next to the search template) to get specifics