Opac Tutorial Module 3

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8. But wait, you said you’d explain Boolean power searches better! Module 3 - What's a Boolean search and how can it help me?

What is Boolean Searching?: 

What is Boolean Searching? Boolean Searching allows you to Narrow or Expand your search and most search engines use this logic. Without using Boolean language, you will have to preview pages and pages of retrieved information before you find what you were actually looking for in the first place. What a waste of time!

Lions and Tigers AND…Elephants?: 

Lions and Tigers AND…Elephants? Suppose you were studying African animals but you were only interested in Elephants and Lions. You would need to use the Boolean term AND to retrieve pages with both these terms in them.

Lions and Tigers OR……Elephants: 

Lions and Tigers OR……Elephants BUT…suppose you want to EXPAND your search for information on Lions or Elephants? The Boolean term OR does just that-more pages with the term lion, or elephant, or both in them.

Lions and Tigers, NOT Elephants.: 

Lions and Tigers, NOT Elephants. Be careful using the Boolean term NOT. Although you are searching for elephant, the word lion may also be present in documents that contain the word elephant. If you want to find elephant NOT lion, no records are retrieved in which the word lion appears even if the word elephant is there too!

Boolean logic & OPAC: 

Boolean logic & OPAC But can I use AND, OR, and NOT in the OPAC when I’m searching for a book? You BET’CHA!! Look at the following example…

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Notice that the word AND is selected. This means the individual wants to find information on baseball but only wants stories that are true (nonfiction) about the subject of baseball. Otherwise all books on baseball would be retrieved. Using AND limits or narrows the search.

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Notice that it says “Enter up to three keywords or phrases” and that there are three lines to fill. You could look up (1) baseball (2) and nonfiction (3) and biographies.

REMEMBER…….: 

REMEMBER……. Keyword/Boolean searches are NOT subject searches.     The word/s you use are just located anywhere in the text that is retrieved.

How Search Engines Search: 

How Search Engines Search What happens if you take out the operators AND, AND NOT and OR and write the following line instead? elephant lion tiger Most search engines interpret the space between the words as the operator, AND . That is, they will give you all the pages that include all these words. But that was not what you were looking for, was it? You are interested in pages that do not include the word tiger

Excite and Go/Infoseek: 

Excite and Go/Infoseek Then again, some search engines, like Excite and Go/Infoseek, interpret the space between the words as the operator, OR . This means that these search engines will give you pages that include the word elephant or the word lion or both words. Again, you will end up with a lot of information that you do not need or want.

HotBot/Alta Vista: 

HotBot/Alta Vista In other search engines, such as Hotbot, you will need to choose "Boolean searching" or a "Boolean phrase" in the menu before using terms like AND, OR and AND NOT . In Alta Vista you must use the search form foradvanced searching. Advanced searching means you must tell Alta Vista how you want to search, using Boolean language.

The more you practice…….: 

The more you practice……. …the more familiar you will become with the search patterns of each search engine. A little practice, a little patience and soon your friends will be calling you the Expert at retrieving information from OPAC, the Internet and other databases! And remember – your library media teacher is always there to help you!

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You did it!! Now that you are finished with the tutorial, close this screen, click on the OPAC icon on the desktop, and try some searches of your own. Then, go back to the SV Library home page. Click on “Library Catalog” and take the last OPAC tutorial Quiz for Module 3. Happy Reading! Click HERE to go back to SV Library’s web page