2.8 Search Strategies - More Boolean Logic

Now let's suppose you got only a few results from your keyword search - not nearly the information you need. This would be a good time to try a Boolean search using the operator OR to connect your terms which should give you more inclusive results.

For this type of search you should think of related terms or synonyms. For example: "capital punishment or death penalty", "disabled or handicapped", "cat or dog or bird" (for pet books). The results of your search using OR will be much broader, including resources that have ANY of the requested terms.

Here is the Venn diagram to illustrate the set of results from an OR search:

In this diagram, a search for the keyword "filtering" is broadened by adding the synonym "censorship" as an alternate keyword. The search results will include items that have at least one of the terms filtering or censorship.

It's OK to include as many terms as you want. Just remember:

• OR gives you every item that has ANY terms
• AND gives you only items that have both or ALL of the terms.