Boolean Searching

Use Boolean operators and nesting to search for combinations of words or phrases. Enter Boolean operators (i.e., AND, OR, NOT) in either uppercase or lowercase.

Note: Boolean operators and nesting may be used in Free Search types

Concept	Search Examples	Retrieval Formula
AND	rodgers AND hammerstein children AND poverty "civil war" AND virginia	Retrieves only records containing both terms.
OR	sixties OR 60s OR 1960s labor OR labour email OR e-mail OR "electronic mail"	Retrieves records containing either one or more terms.
AND NOT	caribbean AND NOT cuba jockey AND NOT disc "civil war" AND NOT american	Excludes records containing the second term.
NESTING	fruit AND (banana OR apple) (women OR woman) AND basketball ((color OR colour) AND (decorate OR decoration)) AND NOT (art OR architecture)	Use parentheses ( ) to group portions of boolean queries for more complex searches.