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HIST 100: Commonwealth (Fall 2025)

AND OR NOT

Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.

AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: history AND Virginia

OR - searches for one of the words. Example: Williamsburg OR virginia

NOT - exclude a term. Example:  (jamestown NOT williamsburg) AND "colonial period"

Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (Virginia OR williamsburg) AND "colonial period"

Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "colonial period"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "colonial Williamsburg book dealer" will exclude "a Williamsburg book dealer"

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.
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Wom* covers about 62 words, including wombat.

Examples

  1. Start by writing out your question or topic.
  2. identify key terms
  3. identify potential synonyms
  4. Use AND OR NOT to create search phrases. 
  5. Conduct several searches, revising keywords backed on subject terms & commonly used language in the articles/books.
  • Development of Jamestown during the colonial period.
    • jamestown AND "colonial period"
  • Education in virginia during the colonial period.
    • education AND virginia AND "colonial period"
    • education AND virginia AND history
  • Women in Virginian society during the 1700s.
    • women AND virginia AND 18th

Examples

  1. Start by writing out your question or topic.
  2. identify key terms
  3. identify potential synonyms
  4. Use AND OR NOT to create search phrases. 
  5. Conduct several searches, revising keywords backed on subject terms & commonly used language in the articles/books.

 

  • I'm interested in books and the book trade in Colonial Williamsburg.
    • keywords: Colonial Williamsburg, books
    • Synonyms: Colonial Virginia, books, print, printing, paper?
    • search:  ("colonial Virginia" OR "Colonial Williamsburg") AND (print* OR press OR book*)
    • . After my searches, I may revise. Pay attention to subjects and keywords in the results. 
      • In my case, subjects are "printers" "virginia" "williamsburg" "history" "book binders" "Booksellers and bookselling"

I might try a subject search for (Virginia AND williamsburg) AND history AND (printers OR "Book binders")

I'd also try a subject search for "Booksellers and bookselling" AND Virginia AND History