LSU Libraries - Searching Techniques and Strategies Tutorial

CONTENTS:

Introduction
Generating Search Terms
Boolean Searching
Combining Terms
Truncation
Field Searching

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Boolean Searching - NOT

Finally, NOT is a term that allows you to exclude records with certain words from your search. Specifying dogs not cats would get you all the records that contain the word "dogs" EXCEPT the ones that also contain the word "cats." For instance, if we had a book whose title was "The Complete Book of Dogs and Cats", that record would not show up, even though it had the word "dogs" in it, because it also contains the word "cats."

This can be helpful if you want to exclude certain records from your search. Let's say I was looking for books on the state of Mississippi, and typed in Mississippi as a keyword search. I'd get a lot of books on the Mississippi river, so I type in Mississippi not river, which effectively cuts out all the books on the Mississippi River. Be cautious with this term-you can cut out a lot of records you might want. Think carefully when using it!

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Last Updated: Wednesday, 06-Aug-2008 09:25:57 CDT