Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Schools AND Education
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: schools OR academies
NOT - exclude a term. Example: Universities NOT academies
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (schools OR academies) AND women = search for schools and academies for women
Example: (universities NOT academies) AND women = search for women's universities, excluding women's academies
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "higher education"
Example: "West Virginia"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "Captain Smith" will exclude all results for "Captaine Smith," which was the original spelling. "College of William & Mary" will exclude when it's just called "William & Mary"
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.
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. Wom* will include wombat.