1. How to search like a pro
WALT: Students will learn how to search the internet using Boolean Logic
WILF: Students feel confident

2. We already know
how to
use the Web!
Just because you live on the Web, doesn’t mean you can’t learn how to use it more effectively and more powerfully!
Sure, for some of you this is a review. But many of you may not remember some of the strategies that put you in control of your searches.

3. Four tips: FSRE (for sure?)
Focus—What is your mission or question?
Strategize—Which search tools will you use? Which keywords and search terms will you use and how will you express them?
Refine—How might I improve my search results?
Evaluate—Which results will you visit? Which sites or documents are worthy enough to use? Did I do good work?
This acronym is not meant to be used in a linear way. While you are searching you will consider refocusing, refining, evaluating, and re-strategizing over and over again.

4. BACKGROUND Boolean searching is based on a system of symbolic logic
which was developed by George Boole, who was a 19th
century English mathematician.
Most searchable computer databases support Boolean
searching.
Portrait of George Boole, Public Domain

5. USING BOOLEAN When performing a Boolean search, you must first choose
keywords that best describe your topic. Then you must
connect the keywords using operators.
Go to to help you generate key words

6. Recognize the importance of brainstorming and strategy
Research Question: How effective are drug abuse prevention programs for young people?
Connect with “ANDs”
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4 or
teen*
“drug abuse”
prevent*
effectiv*
adolesc*
marijuana
program*
success
child*
alcohol
treat*
Here’s another pre-planning chart. ANDs, or ideas to combine, run horizontally. ORs, or related terms, run vertically. Note that stemming, truncation, or wildcards will pick up different forms of words so you don’t have to type all spelling possibilities for the same concept.

7. No use of quotation marks
More on key words
Phrases that use your key words like “deontological ethics” need to use parenthesis (quotation marks) around the phrase to link it together.
Consider
No use of quotation marks
Use of quotation marks

8. Stop Words
Most search engines do not consider extremely common words in order to speed up search results or to save disk space. These filtered words are known as "Stop Words". 
Words like: The, a, when, its, are
Except…
Consider…
Matrix (Maths concept)
The Matrix (Movie)
Google doesn’t consider “The” as a STOP word as it will change the meaning and results

9. “Phrase searching” One of your best searching tools!
Use only for legitimate phrases, names, titles
“vitamin A”
“John Quincy Adams”
Titles “An Officer and a Gentleman”
Phrase searching is sometimes overused: Remember: not every group of words is a phrase
Sometimes “ANDing” or “NEARing” are better strategies
What would happen if you searched for vitamin A without the quotation marks? Can you come up with examples of other terms that should absolutely be searched as phrases?

10. BOOLEAN OPERATORS
AND ( is a limiter as it narrows the search by retrieving only records containing both keywords used in the search statement)
OR (is an expander as it broadens your search by retrieving either one or both of the keywords used in the search statement)
NOT (is a limiter as it excludes records containing the second keyword in your search statement)

11. The AND operator
AND links terms together in a way that makes your search more narrow. It tells the computer that you want records that contain all the words you specify.
For instance, if you search only records containing the words “dog” AND “cat,” your results will return only those articles containing BOTH terms.

12.                       
AND
In logic the purple space where the A and B circles intersect represents all the records that would be returned by the search dog AND cat.

13. The OR operator OR broadens, or widens, your results.
For instance, a search on dog or cat will give you records that not only have both dog and cat in them, but also the records that contain only dog and only cat.
Therefore, you will obtain more results by using the OR operator.

14. OR
                                  The purple space represents all the records that would be returned by the search "dog or cat."

15. The NOT operator
NOT is a term that allows you to exclude, or eliminate,
certain words from your search.
So Dog NOT Cat looks for things that exclude cats and include dogs

16. NOT
                                 
                                 
The purple spaces represent all the records that would be returned by the search "dog not cat," and "cat not dog.” Note that “dog not cat” gives much different results that “cat not dog.”

17. Lets Play Basic Boolean stand up sit down.
If you are a girl stand up! If you are boy stand up! If you are a girl OR a boy stand up If you are a boy AND you have brown eyes stand up If you are a boy OR a girl AND have brown eyes stand up If you are a boy OR a girl but you are NOT 15 years old stand up If you are a boy OR a girl AND you wear glasses but you are NOT12 years old stand up Discuss: What happened in each case? How did the operators affect the outcome of our search?

18. Common Codes in Domain Names
edu - higher education
com - commercial firms (+22 million)
gov - government agencies
org - general noncommercial organizations
net - computer networks
int - international organizations
State or Country of origin:
uk (United Kingdom)
au (Australia)

19. Web Searching Tips Use unique words or phrases. Check spelling!
Use synonyms or multiple spellings (e.g., marijuana marihuana)
Try more than one search engine.
Use words like “research” or “policy” to find more scholarly sites.
Use domain limit feature e.g., Domain:edu or domain:gov
CSUS Library Instruction
Fall 2004

20. Let’s review Okay, what did we learn?
Ask students to go through what they learned about search tools as a review.
Let’s review