Database Search Examples

Boolean Search Examples Using and Ebsco Databases

USING BASIC SEARCH 

USING ADVANCED SEARCH OPTION

Use AND to narrow a search. Both terms (global warming and forests) must be present in any results you receive. 

Use OR to expand your search. Multiracial adolescent identity studies may use different words.  OR is used most often to combine synonyms of similar terms in a search, since different writers will use different terms.

Use NOT to exclude a term. Records with the first term (eating disorder) will be retrieved, but any records with the second term (bulimia) will be eliminated.

Phrases

QUOTATIONS enclosing a phrase tells the database to find that exact phrase. Using quotations narrows your search.

In the example below, the phrase "a day that will live in infamy" will return results about FDR's speech after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, as well as other times that phrase has been used. For example, some articles after the 9/11 attacks used the same phrase.

Truncation

Truncation allows you to search for a root form of a word and pick up any ending.  To use truncation, simply add the asterisk * sign to the end of any root form of a word. Truncation broadens your search.

For example teen* will retrieve:

• teen
• teens
• teenager
• teenagers
• teen-ager