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Search Tools and Tips:
or How to Search Using Search Tools

  • Read Help to know search options for each search engine.

  • Put the most important search words first.

  • Use AND when searching to combine words. And narrows a search and tells the search tool that both terms must be present. And may also be represented by the plus sign +
    • example: dogs and cats will return records that have both dogs and cats in the same document.

  • Use OR to broaden a search. Searching with or means that either or both words can be present.
    • example: dogs or cats will return all documents on dogs and all documents on cats

  • Use NOT to narrow a search. Searching with not means that the search term may not be present. Not may be represented by the word not or by the minus sign -.
    • example: dogs not cats will return only records about dogs, no cats allowed anywhere in the document.

  • Quotation marks "   " cause the search tool to search the words as a single unit. This is particularly useful when searching names or phrases.
    • example: "red cloud" will return documents about Red Cloud while using the two words individually will return many documents about the color red and other documents about clouds.

  • Commas can be used to separate names and titles in a search.
    • example: rollerblading, in-line, skating will return documents including any of these search terms.

  • The asterik "*" is a truncation tool. "*" allows the searcher to cut a word short to allow for a variety of endings.
    • example: "hous*" will search for house, housing, houses, etc.

  • Parentheses  "( )" are used to group words in a search to make a search more specific.
    • example: lincoln NOT (auto* OR car*) will return documents about Lincoln that do not include any references to autos, automobiles, car, or cars.

  • Use lower case letters.

  • Use specific or unique words to search. Consider consulting a thesaurus for word ideas.

  • Check spelling.

  • Avoid articles like " a ", " the ", and " of ". These are called stop words and computers will not search for them.

  • Consider using more than one search engine. Sometimes one engine works better than another!