Electronic Searching

OR expands the search by combining search terms into a larger conditional set. Using "or" is helpful when you have two similar topics that could both retrieve relevant information.
A OR B

Example: You want information about homicide or murder.

NOT limits a search by requiring a term not to be present. Using "not" is useful when you want information about one topic, but don't want any information about another topic included.
A NOT B

Example: You want information about turtles, not tortoises.

Truncation (*)
To find words that begin with the same characters but end differently, use an "*" (asterisk). Type the root words followed by an asterisk. For example, searching for "teach*" finds "teacher," "teachers," and "teaching."

Wildcard (?)
To find words that share some but not all characters, use the "?" (question mark) wildcard search. Replace the wildcard character with a question mark. For example, searching on "wom?n" finds both "woman" and "women." Searching on "Johns?n" finds "Johnson" and "Johnsen."