Boolean operators are logical connectors that allow you to combine or exclude specific terms or phrases in your search query. Yahoo!: “ Tips for using Yahoo! Search effectively”Īlso, you can see how these search engines use other operators, such proximity searching.Boolean search strings are combinations of keywords and Boolean operators used to refine and improve search results in a database or search engine.Google: “ Operators and more search help”.You will have to check a particular database yourself due to licensing issues. If it helps, here are the details for Boolean Searching for several major search engines. Second, I hope to being awareness to the fact Boolean can differ from place to place users just need to check and see how the particular database or search engine represents Boolean Operators. What do I hope someone gains from reading this? First, readers can understand how Google uses Boolean and not fall into the “NOT” trap. Thus on Google, our London and Buckingham Palace search would look like this:ĪND: London AND “Buckingham Palace” or London and “Buckingham Palace” Before the Power Searching class, I just assumed Google was not programmed to search “NOT” except in the advanced menu. Oh, how I wished I knew this sooner! Of all the variations, this caused the most Google searching harm. Again, “NOT” in either case is assumed to be part of a phrase and not an operator. Does this mean Google uses the lower case version or the symbol version? If you picked the symbol version, congratulations! For “NOT”, Google only recognizes the minus sign (“-“) to exclude words or quotes-enclosed phrases and it must be placed directly in front of the word or phrase without a space. However, Google’s version of “NOT” is not the standard upper case. It does recognizes “OR,” but not “or.” The reason? If a lower case “or” is used it assumes the word not an operator, but part of a phrase (for example, “to be or not to be”). Google recognizes “and” and “AND.” Also, if more than one word or phrase is entered into a search, it uses “AND” as the “unwritten” default to combine the ideas (for example, if you typed Buckingham Palace without quotes it assumes Buckingham AND Palace). I was shocked to learn this when I took the Power Searching with Google class! Might that be why some of my past Google Searches were unproductive? It was. Google does not use all the standard Boolean Operators. Now imagine if the world’s largest and most popular search engine doesn’t follow standard Boolean operators. It is only when someone knows differently that they can use the correct variation for a particular database or website. Why? With almost everyone I observed at the reference desk–both patrons and the other librarians on duty–one normally defaults to using the lower case due to typing simplicity (usually, lower case does work in popular databases). However, most of the time these variations, when they occur, are not obvious and cause searches to be hampered because the operators will not work properly. Occasionally, you can find them in a sidebar on the advanced search menu. These variations can usually be located under the “Help” menu. Some might even recognize multiple variants. Still others might use symbols instead of words (ex. Others use upper case letters (the original version of Boolean was all upper case). Some require the letters all be lower case. What the non-librarians may not know is that databases sometimes vary how Boolean operators are used. These skills are not only useful when locating data, but are often the first information literacy skills taught to patrons, especially in K-12 schools and higher education. While not Boolean, enclosing phrases in quotations marks (” “) means the searcher is looking for an exact phrase instead of those two words anywhere in the document. Just to recap, “AND” combines terms to limit a search (ex. Knowing how to use “AND,” “OR,” and “NOT” are keys to searching digital data. Every librarian knows their Boolean Operators.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |