Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Women AND Education
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: British OR English
NOT - exclude a term. Example: Scotland NOT England
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (British OR English) AND Laws = search for British or English Laws.
Example: (England NOT London) AND Crime = search for crime in England, excluding London.
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "Queen Anne"
Example: "Virginia Company"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "Captain Smith" will exclude all results for "Captaine Smith," which was the original spelling
Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Virginia* will give you results for Virginia, Virginian, Virginians.
Example: Danc* will give you results for Dance, Dancing, Dancers.
Example: Brit* will give you British, Britain, Brits.
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Virginia* will bring up articles on the Virginia opossum