Boolean Operators are three words (AND, OR, NOT) that combine keywords. AND will narrow a search, OR will broaden a search, and NOT will narrow a search by excluding a keyword.
Examples:
cloning AND "extinct animals"
mammoth OR "wholly mammoth"
cloning NOT human
When developing a search strategy avoid using whole sentences. This may work in search engines like Google or Yahoo, but does not work in a database.
Also avoid using half a sentence with a Boolean Operator. Just use a simple search and Boolean Operators.
Correct: "extinct species" AND cloning
Incorrect: "resources about animals" AND cloning
Incorrect: I need to find resources about extinct animals and cloning.
Quotation Marks can be used to search for exact phrases.
Correct: "extinct animals"
"endangered species"
Incorrect: "species"
Incorrect: "extinct animals" AND cloning"
Truncation to save time. Use an asterisk * to take the place of letters in a word so that other forms of the word can be searched at the same time.
Example: extinct* will search for extinct, extinction and extinctions
