Using boolean search

Boolean search lets you look for combinations of up to three terms or phrases using Boolean connector terms (i.e., AND, OR, NOT).

The boolean search query form.

To use the boolean form ...

1. Enter a term or phrase in the first text box. Multiple words in a single box will be treated as a literal string, not separately in an "any word" or "all words" sense. Use an asterisk with a word stem to find variations on the word (e.g., searching for civ* will match civ, civil, civic, and civilian.). All other punctuation will be ignored.
   
   
2. Use the pulldown button to the right of the text box to restrict the area of text that this term is searched for. The default anywhere will not place any restriction on this.
   
   
3. Use the pulldown button at the bottom ('restrict to component part') to select a region of a text to search within (e.g., acts ). This region will be the context in which all the terms entered in the text boxes will be evaluated.
   
   Please note: the options available in the pull-down menus for selecting search regions are determined by the collections selected. Making changes in the collection filters or in the collection list (steps 3 and 4 below) may change items in the list.
   
   
4. To restrict the search to a range of collections matching certain criteria, select values in the collection filters. Collections matching the criteria will be automatically selected in the collection list (this step is optional).
   
   
5. To manually add or remove collections from the collection list, check or uncheck the checkbox next to a collection name. (this step is optional).
   
   
6. If you enter a term or phrase in the second text box, select a boolean operator before this text box to determine the relationship between the first term and the second.
   
   Note that these operators are to be taken literally: a and b means both a and b, a or b means either of them, and a not b means a, but not b.
   
   examples:
   

   Civil in the first box, war in the second box, and the and operator between them would look for all instances of civil and war in the specified region.
   
   Civil in the first box, war in the second box, and the or operator between them would look for all instances of civil or war in the specified region.
   
   Civil in the first box, war in the second box, and the not operator between them would look for all instances of civil that occur without war occurring in the specified region.
   
   

7. Please note: if you enter terms in three or more boxes, the query will evaluate the boolean relationship between terms 1 and 2 first, then between the result of that and the next term, and so on.
   
   example:
   
   

   World in the first box
   
   followed on the next line by the and operator and Socialism in the second box,
   
   followed on the third line the or operator and Poverty in the text box

   
   
   will be evaluated as
   
   

   ( world and socialism ) or poverty

   
   
   
8. Click the "search checked collections" button to submit the query.

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