The Changing Nature of Information Research: Evaluating Sources Library Database Preparing to Search a Database Choosing the Correct Database Database Fields Research: Locating Sources The Changing Nature of Information Research: Using Databases Research: Techniques and Tools Defining Research Introduction


Search Technique (continued)

Boolean Searching (ANDing and ORing)

The final piece of the database puzzle are the Boolean operators AND and OR. These two operators tell the system how to combine terms.

AND

 		 
AND is used to combine terms and phrases that are not part of the same concept group. For example, elderly and alcoholism each belong to a different concept group, so the search statement would be elderly AND alcoholism. You are instructing the system to find articles that contain both terms. An article that contains only one term would not be retrieved. Diagram of AND
   
OR  
OR is used to combine terms and phrases that are part of the same concept group. For example, elderly and aged are part of the same concept group, so the search statement would be elderly OR aged. You are instructing the system to find articles that contain one or both of the terms. Diagram of OR
   

 
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These pages were written by Glenn Remelts. and edited by Jeffrey L. Nyhoff and Nancy Zylstra
©2005 Calvin University (formerly Calvin College), All Rights Reserved

If you encounter technical errors, contact computing@calvin.edu.