Troy University, TROY Global Campus Library Services

RED = subject A, the concept teens. In an actual search, this concept might be represented by one or more search terms, e.g.,

YELLOW = subject B, the concept of friends. In an actual search, this concept might be represented by one or more search terms, e.g.,

BLUE = subject C, the concept of recreation. In an actual search, this concept might be represented by one or more search terms, e.g.,

oror

andand

(and) not

and

(or) not

The important thing to remember when doing a search is to group your terms properly. REMEMBER: When you are interested in food for dogs or cats you need to search for (dog or cat) and food, not dog or cat and food.
This is (dog or cat) and food. This is the CORRECT search.	This is dog or cat and food. Wrong! If you don't tell the computer how to search, it will usually perform the search by looking for "ands" first, then "ors"--or some other way that you did not intend. That is to say, it looks for cat and food, then it "ands" those results with dog. It is the equivalent of telling the computer dog or (cat and food).

This page updated, spelling and links checked : Friday, October 19, 2007