Search operators help clarify, narrow, or broaden a search. Here are tips for using them in your searches:
Quotes
Quotes can be used to identify and search for a specific phrasing of words strung together. Quotes can be very useful for searching titles. For example,
| The Color Purple | Searches all instances of the term "color" and "purple", ranking instances where they are together higher |
| "The Color Purple" | Looks for instances for the entire phrase "The Color Purple", and when those words exist in that order |
Boolean Operators
These narrow or broaden a search. Using all-caps in OneSearch is important, and you'll get different results by using lowercase.
Puppy AND Kitten --- Returns instances where both "puppy" and "kitten" are mentioned in the record
Puppy OR Kitten --- Returns instances where either "puppy" and "kitten" are mentioned in the record
Puppy NOT Kitten --- Returns instances of the word "puppy", but not where "kitten" is included in the record
Created by the librarians at Northwest Arkansas Community College Library. See their guide for other search hacks: http://library.nwacc.edu/search-hacks/home
Wildcards
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