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Research Tips: Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators

tutorial search techniques

Walk through this tutorial to learn more about the different search techniques used when searching the Library databases. 

What are Boolean Operators?

Boolean Logic

Boolean operators are terms you can use to narrow or broaden your search in a database or Google Scholar. The three basic operators are: AND, OR, and NOT. 

Why Use Them?
  • To focus a search when you are using multiple terms.
  • To include synonyms for your search terms in order to find all variations.
  • To exclude terms not relevant to your search.

Using AND - to narrow your search

How To Use AND

Use the operator AND in a search to:

  • Narrow your results
  • Tell the database that ALL the terms must be present in the search results

TIP: Put phrases such as "United States" or "college students" in "quote marks" to tell the database you want those terms to be searched together. 
 

Examples
Anxiety AND "college students" 

The search above tells the database that you want each article in your results to mention ALL the search terms. This narrows your results because all the terms must be present instead of finding any articles about anxiety, or college students.

Detroit AND bankruptcy

The venn diagram below demonstrates that AND is the intersection of all your search terms - thus it narrows your search.

AND lets you see where two topics overlap.

Detroit AND bankruptcy finds everything that has both the term "Detroit" and the term "bankruptcy"

Using OR - To Broaden Your Search

How to Use OR

Use the operatorOR to:

  • Broaden your search by telling the database that ANY of the terms can be present in your results
  • To include synonyms or related concepts for your search terms

Examples

College students OR university students OR undergraduates OR graduate students

The example above will broaden your search because it will pull up articles with ANY of those terms present.

"Software engineers" OR programmers
The venn diagram below demonstrates that OR  lets you search for more than one term - thus it broadening your search.

OR lets you search for more than one term.

Software Engineers OR Programmers finds everything that has either the terms "software engineers" or "programmers"

Using NOT - To Narrow Your Search

How to Use NOT

Use the operator NOT to:

  • Narrow your results.
  • Exclude specific words or concepts from your search results.

Examples

Cloning NOT Sheep

This tells the database to pull up results about cloning but to exclude any articles that mention sheep.

NOT lets you exclude a term.

This content is adapted from Utah State Univesity Libraries "Research Tips", licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0