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Music Research Resources

Music Resources at Copley Library

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are connectors used to show a relationship between keywords.  The three Boolean operators used in research databases include:  AND, OR, NOT

AND - use this operator between keywords to narrow your search and reduce the size of your results

Ex.  Zika AND Florida   - this search tells the database that you only want articles that include Zika AND Florida within them.

OR -  use this operator between keywords to broaden your search and increase the size of your results

Ex. Iraq OR Syria - this search tells the database that you want any articles that contain either Iraq OR Syria; only one of the keywords has to be present in the article to be part of your results

NOT - use this operator to exclude a keyword from your search

Ex. obesity NOT childhood - this search tells the database that you want articles on obesity as long as they exclude reference to childhood


Need more examples?  See this short video from Deakin Library:   Boolean Operators