| AND | NARROWS RESULTS | results must include both words | e.g. athletes AND injuries |
| OR | BROADENS RESULTS | results can include either word | e.g. athletes OR players |
| NOT | NARROWS RESULTS | results must not include the second word | e.g. athletes NOT professional |
The approach you take when entering your search terms in a library database will affect the results you get. Before building a search, think about how you want to combine your search terms.
Putting words in quotation marks - if you want a group of words to appear exactly as written, place the words in quotation marks. You might use quotation marks so those terms appear as a phrase and not isolated from one another. Example: "food deserts"
Using an asterisk (*) at the end of a word will bring back variations of the word.
Example: exercis* will retrieve results with the words exercise, exercising, exercisedl etc.
Warning: Be careful to not place the asterisk to early in the word because it may retrieve irrelevant results.
Example: add* will retrieve addict, addicted, addiction, but it will also retrieve results with words like address, addition, additive etc. which are not likely on point.
Sometimes when searching a database you might enter terms that yield no results. If this happens, you might want to search the subject or thesaurus to ensure that the terms you are using are appropriate. The subject headings can also help you expand your search terms by suggesting, broader, narrower and related terms.
Example: In Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition you can select Subject.. Enter opioid addiction. It suggests that you use Opioid Abuse instead.
