Advanced Search Tips and Common Search Problems

What is Boolean searching? What is the purpose of using parentheses and synonyms in a database search? Already know? What happens when these techniques go wrong?  

When you’re searching OneSearch from the library's homepage or another library database to look for information about the effects of COVID-19 on athletes, what do you do?
 
You use the word AND between your keywords. In other words, you type in the search box: covid AND athletes.

However, what word should you really be searching about the virus, covid or coronavirus?

It’s a problem, isn’t it? On the one hand, if you search by “covid,” then you’ll miss all the books and articles that call it “coronavirus.” On the other hand, if you search by “coronavirus,” then you’ll miss all the books and articles that call it “covid”! What can you do in this case? 

There’s another word you can use. It’s the word OR. Use OR between your synonyms. In other words, search the database with a search string that groups like terms with OR and connects the concepts using AND. 

For example: (covid OR coronavirus) AND athletes

Don’t forget to put parentheses around your synonyms! This allows the database to search these synonyms as one concept. 

You can also use the Advanced Search option in OneSearch from the library's homepage. Simply type each of your three keyword synonym phrases in its own box and us OR between the synonyms inside each box. Note: The AND Boolean operator is used between the boxes to tie the search together into one strategic search. 

LIBRARY TRIVIA:

QUESTION: Why does the search (covid or coronavirus) AND athletes in OneSearch  from the library's homepage using the Basic Search option 48,267 search results and the search covid OR coronavirus AND athletes in OneSearch Advanced Search yield 4,844,599 search results? 

QUESTION: Why does the search athletes AND covid OR coronavirus in OneSearch Advanced Search yield even more search results: 5,233,220?

ANSWER: When executing a search, And takes precedence over Or.

ANSWER: You can enclose search terms and their operators in parentheses to specify the order in which they are interpreted. Information within parentheses is read first, then information outside parentheses is read next. For example, when you enter (mouse OR rat) AND trap, the search engine retrieves results containing the word mouse or the word rat together with the word trap in the fields searched by default.