Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.
AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: "air pollution" AND london
OR - searches for one of the words. Example: (smog OR pollution) AND london
NOT - exclude a term. Example: NOT fog
Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (smog OR pollution) AND london
Example:(pollution NOT smog) AND london
Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "william and mary"
Example: "air pollution"
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: school* covers school, schools, schoolroom, schoolbook, schoolmarm, etc
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will get you British, Britain, etc but also Britons, Britches etc
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Many Databases have extra hidden search commands that only work in their database. These are extremely useful BUT differ between databases, so consult the directions for each database before using them
Please note that many databases works differently, so you need to read the about page. For example: