Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: China AND "cold war"
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: "cold war" OR "cultural revolution"
NOT - exclude a term. Example: NOT "Hong Kong"
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: ("Tiananmen Square protests" OR "June Fourth Incident") AND students
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "Tiananmen Square protests"
Example: "cultural revolution"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "Tiananmen Square protests" will exclude all results for "Tiananmen Square"
Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR repeatedly.
Example: Brit* will cover Brit, Brits, British, Britain, Britannia
Example: Politic* covers politic, politics, political
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Chin* will give you China and Chinese but also ~450 others