Help for Keyword Searches

1. How To Search – in the box, type words you want to find and click [Search]:

• Any Word: Just type one or more words to find any of the words.
• Exact Phrase: Surround an expression in double quotes (“…”). Punctuation must be the same to be found between words, for example “Galt, John”.
• All Words: Use Boolean operators (a plus or a minus sign) in front of each word or a quoted phrase: + includes words, – excludes words, for example +family +”home security” -personal

2. No wild cards (pound sign, asterisk, etc.) – trailing letters or symbols create separate new words.
3. Stop words have been removed – these cannot be retrieved:

• helping verbs (be, is, are, was, were, did, can, will, etc.)
• articles (a, an, the, that, each, both, neither, etc.)
• prepositions and conjunctions (at, on, in, for, between, etc.)
• wh- words (who, how, what, where, why, which, etc.)
• inquiry words (say, use, tell, show, want, mean, explain, etc.)

4. Capitalization doesn’t matter – upper and lower case produce the same results.
5. Ranked results come from a total match on the words and phrases you supply –

• think of several specific terms for your topic;
• try several searches to find which terms work best;
• be sure to spell words correctly;
• include plurals and derivatives [address addresses contact contacting inform information].

6. Boolean Search Examples: