SEARCH TIPS

IN COMPUTERESE

Boolean Operators: AND and OR. Use quotation marks around phrase for an ADJ search
Truncation symbol: *
Default operator: AND

IN NORMAL ENGLISH

AND Search
Example: criminal and statistics
Search finds only items that include ALL words you enter.

OR Search
Example: congress or legislative
Search finds all items containing ANY of the words you enter.

Phrase Search
Example: "gpo access"
Put quotation marks around an exact phrase you enter. Search finds only
items containing the words next to each other in that order.

"Wildcard" Search
Example: child*
Put an asterisk (*) at the end of the word stem to search for variants of
the word. Search finds all items that contain a word stem, regardless of the
ending of the word. The wildcard cannot be used WITHIN a phrase search. In
an AND or OR search, more than one word in the search can be truncated.
Example: child* and stat*

If you enter more than one word without using AND, OR, or quotation marks,
the computer will perform an AND search.

Please send comments and recommendations to:
Larry Romans
Head, Government Information Services
Central Library, Vanderbilt University
Phone: (615) 322-2838;
Email Larry Romans

Assistant: Peter Humke
Created: March 27, 2003