What are Boolean Operators? Ms. Reishus Spring 2010

The most common Boolean operators are AND, OR, NOT They are used to combine search terms when doing research What are Boolean Operators?

And Would everybody wearing Jeans, please stand up? # _____ Would everybody wearing Sneakers please stand up? # _____ Would everybody wearing jeans and sneakers please stand up?# _____

Venn Diagram of AND Jeans Sneakers

AND Explained Using the operator AND between keywords will limit the results of a search because all the keywords have to be present in order for an item to be retrieved.

OR Would everybody wearing jeans please stand up#______ Would everybody wearing sneakers please stand up#______ Would everybody wearing jeans OR sneakers please stand up#______

Venn Diagram of OR Jeans Sneakers

OR Explained Using the OR operator results in either or both of your search terms appearing in your results. Using the OR operator will result in a larger number of retrieved items and therefore expands the search.

NOT The NOT operator forbids the word after it from appearing in the items resulting from your search. Would everybody wearing Jeans but NOT sneakers, please stand up?

Venn Diagram for NOT Jeans Sneakers

NOT Explained Not helps to limit your search because it takes out a category of undesirable results. NOT or AND NOT thus narrows or limits a search by excluding the keyword immediately following it.