Search Strategies
What is a Boolean Search?
Computers use boolean logic to decide if a statement is true or false. "False" is related to value, and not truth in a philosophical sense. The operators related to this are: AND, OR and NOT.
For you, in your research what will this mean? You will be able to use AND, OR and NOT in search engines and databases when researching your topics, in order to better control your results.
The easiest thing to remember is that using AND, will narrow your pool of results.
The OR operator will widen your pool of results.
The NOT operator will exclude items from your results.
Look at the diagram above:
If you were looking for information on a creature that is Undead AND Can Fly AND Drinks Blood, it narrows your options considerably in the chart. Only Vampires fit all of those qualifications.
If you are looking for creatures who Can Fly OR Drink Blood, it widens it considerably: You will now find this is covered under the draugr, ghosts, housefly, mosquitoes, chupacabras, leeches, mosquitoes and vampires and even Superman..
If you decide to search for creatures that Can Fly AND Drink Blood who are NOT Undead then only mosquitoes fit that description.
Boolean logic. (2011). In National Geographic (Ed.), The big idea: How breakthroughs of the past shape the future. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.mga.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/ngeobig/boolean_logic/0?institutionId=3733
478-471-2709 for the Macon campus library | 478-934-3179 for the Roberts Memorial Library at the Cochran campus | 478-275-6772 for the Dublin campus library
478-374-6833 for the Eastman campus library | 478-929-6804 for the Warner Robins campus library | On the Go? Text-A-Librarian: 478-285-4898