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Boolean Operators
- Boolean operators are used to string keywords .These Operators are AND,OR and NOT
- Narrowing the search by using AND will give you a specific result: both words will be present in the record eg HIV AND AIDS
- Widening the search by using the Boolean Operator OR is useful when you wish to combine alternative forms (synonyms) of the same term
- Either or both of the words will be present in the record, eg (State OR Country)
- Excluding references from the search by using the Boolean Operator NOT will help you if you want to exclude references eg pollution NOT oil.
- Phrase Searching: To do phrase searching, you enclose terms to be searched as a phrase in quotation marks. This holds the terms together as you have keywords eg "South Africa", "Affirmative action"
- Truncation: This is allow you to search the "root" form of a word with all its different endings. it broadens your search, eg employ* will retrieve employ, employment, employee, employer, employers.
- Wildcard- The Wildcard is represented by a question mark (?). Enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ? eg globali? ation.It then search for globalisation and globalization, wom?n (women and woman)
