Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Vermont AND "American Revolution" AND "local communities"
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: "Convict labor" OR "prison labor"
NOT - exclude a term. Example: ("Convict labor" OR "prison labor") NOT "Slave labor"
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: "Convict labor" OR "prison labor"
Example: "Native americans" OR "indigenous peoples" OR "indians of north america"
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "Native americans" OR "indigenous peoples" OR "Indians of north america"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "Captain Smith" will exclude all results for "Captaine Smith," which was the original spelling. "North american indians" will exclude "american indians"
Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Virginia* will give you results for Virginia, Virginian, Virginians.
Example: wom* will cover women, woman, womens, womanhood.
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Virginia* will bring up articles on the Virginia opossum. Wom* will include wombat.