HST 390: Animals and Society: Searching Databases: AND, OR, NOT

Online databases frequently utilize organizational structures and metadata conventions that can be confusing to researchers, occasionally to the point of frustration. At their most basic level, even the most advanced database depends upon George Boole’s (1815 –1864) “and, or, not” Boolean Logic, which forces modern researchers to convey complex topics in a machine-readable format. Databases also utilize approved “controlled vocabulary,” which requires researchers to use specific search terms for optimum database performance. Though these features of databases may at first seem archaic and unknowable, these organizational structures also make databases extremely powerful research tools; once researchers become familiar with database search mechanics, and learn the relevant controlled vocabulary related to their research topics, they can use databases to find vital resources.

Using the advanced search boxes in America: History & Life, enter some of your words as a keyword search. Use the AND, OR, and NOT function to pair and match your terms.

Boolean: AND, OR, NOT, Quotation Marks, Asterix

AND Connects search terms together.
Example: Searching for Colleges AND Universities will only return results featuring both terms.
Function: Narrows search results.
Warning: Too many ANDs may needlessly limit your results.

OR Tells the system you want at least one of the search terms.
Example: Searching for Colleges OR Universities will yield results with at least one of these terms. Function: Broadens your search considerably.
Warning: Use OR carefully, otherwise you receive too many results.

NOT Excludes results from your search.
Example: Virginia NOT “West Virginia” will exclude results about West Virginia from a search about Virginia.
Function: exclude results about a specific topic.
Warning: This may inadvertently exclude relevant materials.

“Quotation Marks” Tells the system to search for words as a phrase. A search for Portland State University will return all articles with the words Portland or State or University contained, but not necessarily together, but “Portland State University” will only return results in which it is a single phrase.
Warning: This may accidentally omit relevant results. “Chester A. Arthur” will omit instances where he is described as “Chester Arthur” or “President Arthur.”

Astrex * Tell the database to find all variants of a root word.
Example: Virginia* will return results for Virginia, Virginian, Virginians.
Function: This saves users the trouble of needing to manually search multiple variants of a word.
Warning: This may inadvertently expand the scope of a search to include unrelated and unintended topics. As an example, Virginia* will also include results for Virginiana, so you may get results about opossums (Didelphis virginiana) or a variety of plants.

(Parentheticals) are an order-of-operations function that allow users the manually instruct the database which terms are connected by AND, OR, NOT.
Example: (Colleges OR universities) AND (Oregon OR “New Jersey”) tells the system to find results with Colleges and Oregon, OR Colleges and “New Jersey” OR Universities and Oregon OR Universities and “New Jersey”
Function: Allows users to AND OR NOT search when there is only one search box.
Warning: Most databases, such as America: History and Life, will provide separate search boxes, making it unnecessary to manually include parenthetical notations.

Wildcards #? Some databases have an additional function called wildcards, which allow for precise word searches. In America: History and Life, ? replaces one letters in a word, and # represents an optional character. Examples: Wom?n will return results for women and woman. A search for favo#rite will return results for favorite and favourite.
Warning: Wildcards do not work on all databases, and some have unique rules.