Keywords+and+Synonyms+C- Using+Boolean+Logic


 * What is Boolean? **

"Boolean- a system of logic developed by the English mathematician George Boole that allows the user to combine words or phrases representing significant concepts when searching an online catalog or bibliographic database by keywords." - Delft University of Technology ([]) Boolean can generally be used once someone has developed some background knowledge of their topic. For example, with World War I, after going through the previous steps, it could be assumed that the researcher knows who Franz Ferdinand was, what the Triple Alliance was, and other important events or people linked with World War I. The following examples come from using different Boolean operators in Google.


 * Standard Boolean operators and what they do: **

i.e. [World War One OR Triple Alliance]
 * OR **

The use of “OR” will determine that at least one of the search terms will show up in the search. (Cohen)

i.e. [World War One AND Franz Ferdinand]
 * AND **

Using “AND” combines the search terms and determines that all combined terms will appear in the search. (Delft University of Technology)

i.e. [World War One NOT Franz Ferdinand]
 * NOT **

“NOT” excludes a term from your search. (Cohen

Using Boolean in Other Databases

When searching for keywords only, the results one gets aren't all relevant.
 * EBSCO**

In EBSCO, you can use Boolean by going into "Advanced Search" and entering your search terms. However, one an notice that while the number of results returned by both searches is very different, the main articles returned are the same.

Hence, using Boolean operators in EBSCO may not make a huge difference in the results one receives while doing research.

In United Streaming, if I wanted to find videos about World War One that didn't mention the Triple Alliance, I would use the Boolean Operator "NOT". In United Streaming, searches will search through the descriptions of the videos. To use Boolean operators in United Streaming, you need to go into "Advanced Search" and in the drop down menu select "Match Boolean query". The use of Boolean operators successfully returned useful results.
 * United Streaming**

As one can observe, by not using Boolean operators the researcher would need to look through the search results to find what they wanted. Like the other search engines, using advanced search allows the researcher to use Boolean operators. By using Boolean operators JSTOR does return results about World War One that do not have to do with the Triple Alliance.
 * JSTOR**
 * If someone wanted to do the same search as before using JSTOR, they would use the same Boolean operator. **

Google has symbols that represent different Boolean operators. They are as follows:
 * Google:**

"NOT" can be substituted by a "-".

If a lower case "or" is put into a search query, Google will automatically exclude the "or" from the search. However, if "OR" is placed in the search query, results containing either search term will be returned.

**Works Cited** Cohen, Laura B. "Boolean Searching on the Internet." __Internet Tutorials__. 19 Sept. 2010. 20 Sept. 2010 . Delft University of Technology, By. "Glossary of Terms." __TU Delft Library__. 2010. Deflt University of Technology. 19 Sept. 2010 . Google. "More search help : Google search basics - Web Search Help." __Google__. 2010. 23 Sept. 2010 .