AND
Use
OR
Use OR to broaden a search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates, e.g. Georgia or Florida ; Georgia or Florida or Louisiana will find records containing any, some or all of the search terms. Note: If you wish to search for the word 'or' in a phrase rather than using it as a Boolean operator, you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotation marks (i.e., "jazz or blues").
NOT
Use NOT to narrow a search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it, e.g. religion not preacher will find records that contain religion, but will not contain the word preacher. Note: If you wish to search for the word 'not' in a phrase rather than using it as a Boolean operator, you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotation marks (i.e., "jazz not blues").
There are no stop words. Every word found in all documents have been indexed and are searchable.
· Use quotation marks (“ ”) to search for exact phrases.
· Two word queries such as advertising campaigns are searched as an implicit AND, except when more than one search term has been selected from a browsable index. Selected index terms are automatically joined by the OR operator.
· Use an asterisk (*) and Boolean or proximity operators to focus queries.
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* |
The asterisk (*) is the Truncation character, used to replace one or more characters. The truncation character can be used at the beginning (left-hand truncation), the end (right-hand truncation), or in the middle of a word. Example: Searching for econom* will find economy, economics, economical, etc. |
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? |
The question mark symbol (?) is the Wildcard character, used to replace any single character, either inside or at the right end of the word. Example: Searching for t?re will find tire, tyre, tore, etc. |
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- |
Use a hyphen to indicate a range when searching numerical fields, such as Publication date. Example: YR(2005-2008) |
Proximity and adjacency operators are used to broaden and narrow your search.
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near or near.# |
Near finds documents where these words are within some number of words of each other (either before or after). Note: If no maximum is set, results retreived will reflect entries where all the terms entered are within ten (10) word of each other. Examples: slavery near Virginia ; slavery near.3 Virginia
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fby or fby.# |
Follwed By (fby) is used to search for terms within a specified distance of each other, and in the specified order. Examples: American fby revolution ; Mississippi fby.5 steamer |