Boolean Operators are three words (AND, OR, NOT) that combine keywords into search strings.
Let’s say your topic is to compare and contrast different diets. First you would break that topic down into keywords. Then you would use the Boolean Operators to combine those keywords when you do a search. Avoid using whole sentences in the One Search and database search boxes.
For example:
AND will narrow a search by focusing on resources that contain both keywords.
Example: healthy AND diet
vegetarian AND diet
keto AND diet
OR will broaden a search by looking for two similar keywords at the same time.
Example: diet OR “eating habits”
vegetarian OR vegan
Example: “keto diet” NOT “paleo diet”
Quotation Marks can be used to search for exact phrases in One Search and the library databases.
Correct: "eating habits"
"vegan diet"
“south beach diet”
You do not have to put quotation marks around a single word.
Incorrect: "diet”
“vegan”
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