Boolean Operators
When designing your search, it is important to understand and utilize Boolean operators. Boolean operators help form relationships among words. The operators are AND, OR, NOT.
- Words connected with AND require both terms to be in the results (Internet AND older adults)
- Words connected with OR will return results with either or both term in the results - best used for synonyms (older adults OR elderly OR aged)
- Words connected with NOT return results without the word after the NOT (elders AND senior citizens NOT senior high schoolers)
Most of the resources you'll use will assume an AND between words if you don't supply an operator (Internet search engines do this, which is one of the reasons why you get so many results).
