BOOLEAN LOGIC APPLIED TO ONLINE SEARCHING Critical Thinking & Problem Solving © Janet Tillman/The Master’s College, 2002, permission is granted for non-profit educational use; any reproduction or modification should include this statement.

Boolean AlgebraAlgebra x and y = numerical values Boolean algebra x and y = classes of objects; truth values Boolean Logic is a form of algebra in which any variable can have a logical value of TRUE or FALSE. Applications include mathematical logic, digital logic, computer programming, set theory, and statistics. Boolean Logic is crucial to the development of twentieth century computer programming because it fits nicely with the binary numbering system, in which each bit has a value of either 1 or 0. Science of Logic based on Mathematics in that it works with logical rather than numeric relationships

Venn Diagram Set A Set B A fundamental application of Boolean logic is the organization of concepts into sets.

Intersection of Set A and Set B Set A Set B U = INTERSECTION U AB

A U B Union of Set A with Set B U= UNION Set A Set B

Set A Set B A U B UNION INTERSECTION ? Set A Set B U A B

BOOLEAN OPERATORS AND OR NOT Set B Set A

BOOLEAN OPERATORS AND - Narrows the search - Can be thought of as BOTH - Requires that both terms be in the results - Used for combining differing concepts Messiah AND Christ the INTERSECTION of two sets -Often represented as “All of these”

BOOLEAN OPERATORS OR - Broadens the search - Used to find one term OR another - Can be thought of as EITHER - Used to search synonymous/closely related terms Messiah OR Christ the UNION of two sets -Often represented as “Any of these”

BOOLEAN OPERATORS NOT -Narrows a search -Used to eliminate records -Exercise extreme caution; needed concepts may be eliminated unintentionally Messiah Messiah NOT Christ Christ Messiah

BOOLEAN APPLIED

a U b c U a b c

U a b c

a b c a OR b AND c

Messiah Christ Jesus Messiah OR Christ AND Jesus

Messiah Christ Jesus Messiah OR Christ AND Jesus

Messiah OR (Christ AND Jesus) Messiah Christ Jesus

Messiah OR Christ AND Jesus Messiah Christ Jesus (Messiah OR Christ) AND Jesus

MessiahChrist Jesus (Messiah OR Christ) AND Jesus

Messiah OR Christ OR Jesus Messiah AND Christ AND Jesus Messiah OR Christ AND Jesus

Messiah OR Christ OR Jesus MessiahChrist Jesus

MessiahChrist Jesus Messiah AND Christ AND Jesus

MessiahChrist Jesus (Messiah OR Christ) AND Jesus

LOGICAL OPERATORS Limiting OperatorsLimiting Operators Phrases -Phrases -Field Date -Date Type of Document -Type of Document Truncation, Wildcard -Truncation, Wildcard Language -Language Peer Reviewed -Peer Reviewed Proximity -Proximity -Number of Pages

LIMITING OPERATORS PROXIMITY: NEAR or WITHIN -NEAR / WITHIN is a restrictive AND -designates the closeness of terms within a source document -Designates the number of words by which search terms can be separated

w/n: within the same document where n = the maximum number of words that can come between them Jesus w/1 Messiah LIMITING OPERATORS PROXIMITY: NEAR or WITHIN w/s: within same sentence w/p: within same paragraph Pre/n before term where n=designated number Jesus the Messiah Jesus pre/1 Messiah

LIMITING OPERATORS

LIMITING/EXPANDING OPERATORS PhrasesPhrases Typical symbol used “” -“physical therapy” -“educational technology” Related Terms/TopicsRelated Terms/Topics -work, job, career, -thought, think, thinking Truncation/Wildcards - plurals - variant endings: ed, es, ing; banks, banking, bankruptcy - variant spelling: women/woman; color/colour; encyclopedia/encyclopaedia; judgment/judgement Typical symbols used * ? !

LIMITING OPERATORS Language -English -French -Chagatai Date -Specific date -Before < -After > -Range Type of Document - Article - Book Review - Thesis/Dissertation - Proceedings - Manuscripts

Library Catalog Author/Creator Title Subject ISBN SCIENCE Super Taxa Gene Symbol Molecular Sequence BUSINESS Slogan Company Name NYSE Symbol INTERNET Page Depth Location/Domain Media Types (Java, Images, Script, etc.) PERIODICALS Citation/Abstract References cited Fields Scholarly/Peer Reviewed