By: Ms. Deezy

According to Columbia University Libraries online catalog “A keyword search looks for words anywhere in the record. Keyword searches are a good substitute for a subject search when you do not know the standard subject heading. Keyword may also be used as a substitute for a title or author search when you have incomplete title or author information. You may also use guided Keyword search option to combine search elements, group terms or select indexes or files to be searched” (Keyword Search). Definition of Keyword search

using…AND The operator AND narrows the search by instructing the search engine to search for all the records containing the first keyword, then for all the records containing the second keyword and show ONLY those records that contain both. using….OR The operator OR broadens the search to include records containing either keyword, or both. The OR search is particularly useful when there are several common synonyms for a concept or variant spellings of a word. using….NOT Combining search terms with NOT operator narrows the search by excluding unwanted terms. (Boolean Operators). To search by keyword, select Keyword from the search options and type the word(s) you wish to search. Keyword searches can retrieve a large number of results. Several options are available to help refine your search and results. You can set quick limits when doing keyword searches by using BOOLEAN Operators AND, OR, NOT. Search Strategies

AND dogs AND cats You want to find information that is about both dogs AND cats.

OR dogs OR cats You want to find information about dogs, and cats OR find information that discusses both. Remember OR means MORE.

dogscats NOT Dogs NOT Cats You want to find information about dogs EXCLUDING information about cats.

"Boolean Operators." Boolean Operators. Columbia University Libraries, n.d. Web. 01 Jan "Keyword Search." Keyword Search. Columbia University Libraries, n.d. Web. 01 Jan Works Cited