HRD110: Freshman Seminar

1) Boolean Logic (Advanced Search)

• Use these with a database's Advanced Search mode to narrow results quickly.
• Named after George Boole, an English mathematician. 
• AND overlaps two or more different terms.
  • OR finds more. Use it to add similar ideas on the same search line: 
    • grades OR learning

Example:  (shows Boolean logic): 

sleep 
AND learning

2) Truncation:

• Use the star symbol, or asterisk (*), to find different "wildcard" endings for a word, called truncation. 
  • On a keyboard, use the Shift/8 key.
• Examples: 
  • sleep* = sleep, sleeps, sleepy, sleeping, etc. 
  • stress* = stress, stresses, stressed, etc.

Example (shows Boolean logic, truncation): 

sleep* 
AND stress*

 

3) Phrase search:

• To search for two or more words together, put quotation marks around them: "college students"
• You can also mix and match these techniques - use truncation inside of the quotations: 
  • "mobile devices"
  • "community college*"

Example: (shows Boolean logic, truncation, phrase searching): 

sleep* 
AND "mobile devices"

This video shows how to search for articles with our search box. The library's databases offer more than 80,000 online magazines, newspapers and scholarly peer-reviewed journals. 

• Click Advanced Search and use Boolean logic, truncation and phrase searching to limit your search to get better results quickly. 
  • To use Advanced Search on a phone, click the three horizontal dots (...), next to the pushpin icon. 

Use the green chat box on this page or contact a librarian though Ask a Librarian!