Find Articles in Library Databases: Using AND, OR, NOT

Quotation marks "" in search:

• Use when searching for a phrase
• Database searches all keywords inside the quotation marks, in the exact order they are typed

"global warming"	instead of	global warming
Search results only include articles that have the keywords global and warming next to each other.		Search results include all articles that have the keywords global and warming, even if they are not next to each other.

AND in search:

• Use AND (in all capital letters) to join different concepts or different aspects of the question
• Database searches for articles that include all keywords
• The more words connected by AND, the fewer articles you get

dogs AND cats		Comparing the Search Results
		Search Number of Results dogs 77,871 cats 53,907 dogs AND cats 7,593
Search results only include articles that mention both dogs and cats.

OR in search:

• Use OR (in all capital letters) to join similar, equivalent, or synonymous concepts
• Database searches for articles that include at least one of the keywords
• The more words connected by OR, the more articles you get

dogs AND cats		Comparing the Search Results
		Search Number of Results dogs 77,871 cats 53,907 dogs OR cats 124,185
Search results include all articles that mention either dogs or cats. They also include articles that mention dogs and cats.