Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Virginia AND History
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: Letters OR autobiography
NOT - exclude a term. Example: NOT "Richard Bland Lee"
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: "Richard Bland" AND (Letters OR Autobiography)
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "Richard Bland"
Example: "West Virginia"
Example: "United States"
Warning: You might exclude results. "Richard Bland" will not include documents where he's styled "Bland, Richard" or 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 repeatedly.
Example: Letter* covers letter or letters
Example: Correspond* covers correspondences, correspondence, correspondent, etc
Example: autobiograph* covers autobiography, autobiographical, autobiographies.
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Virginia* will bring up articles on Didelphis virginiana (the Virginia opossum).