GlassR 101:
Blogged by: Aklima
How many results were returned by putting in the words death and penalty (7092) and then searching for “death penalty”? (6554)
Looking at a few of the results, where do the words death and penalty appear? They do not appear in the title, but in the text adjacent.
What would you do if you wanted the exact phrase death penalty to appear? I would put the phrase in Quotation marks. “Death Penalty”
If d = death, p = penalty s = the phrase death penalty, c = the phrase capital punishment and n the phrase New York State. Form for your database and document the results for
d /\ p: Death and Penalty (7092 hits)
d \/ p: Death or Penalty (150,101 hits)
s: ”Death Penalty” (6554 hits)
s /\ n: “Death Penalty” and ”New York State” (260 hits)
s/\~n:”Death Penalty” and not “New York State” (5895 hits)
s \/ c: “Death Penalty” or “Capital Punishment” (7225 hits)
s /\ c: “Death Penalty” and “Capital Punishment” (731 hits)
Write up the rules (using the help screen) for using and, or, not and creating a phrase (exact phrase) in the database assigned to your group.
Focusing your Search by Using Boolean Operators
You can use special terms, called Boolean operators, to build searches that combine and exclude the words and phrases that make up your search.
Examples
Use OR to find documents that contain any one of several search terms:
Internet OR education finds documents mentioning the Internet, as well as documents mentioning education, or both.
Use AND to find documents containing two or more search terms:
Internet AND education finds documents mentioning the Internet and education.
Use AND NOT to exclude a search term:
Internet AND NOT education finds documents regarding the Internet, removing those documents mentioning education.
Using Phrases to Refine Your Search
If you’re searching for a specific phrase, place your phrase in quotation marks (” “). This lets ProQuest know you’re looking for documents where the words appear exactly in order.
Example
If you’re searching for information on animal hospitals, type the following:
“small animal hospital”
The following similar search yields very different results:
small animal AND hospital
The second search finds any document in which both “small animal” and “hospital” appear within 250-words of one another. These results could include documents about the use of dogs and cats in hospitals for therapy.
The first search find records where the words “small animal hospital” occur in that order, not separated by other words. Therefore, the results of the first search are likely to include only documents dealing with veterinary care.
If your phrase is only two words long, ProQuest will automatically treat it as a phrase (as if it were in quotation marks). If your phrase is three words or longer, you must use quotation marks. Otherwise, ProQuest will treat the phrase as if the words were joined by AND, for example “small AND animal AND hospital.”
As the individual assignment (the group should decide who does a and who does b), re-do the previous part for:
Where d = Baseball, p = players, s = baseball players, c = drug abuse and n = steroid use.
d /\ p: Baseball and Players (15502 hits)
d \/ p: Baseball or Players (2000086 hits)
s: ”Baseball Players” (4640 hits)
s /\ n: “Baseball Players” and “Steroid Use” (2 hits)
s/\~n: “Baseball Players” and not “Steroid Use” (4631 hits)
s \/ c: “Baseball Players” or “Drug Abuse” (9122 hits)
s /\ c: “Baseball Players” and “Drug Abuse” (5 hits)
Where d = global, p = warming, s = global warming, c = air pollution, and n = green house effect.
d /\ p: Global and Warming (1653 hits)
d \/ p: Global or Warming (22060 hits)
s: ”Global Warming” (1627 hits)
s /\ n: “Global Warming” and “Greenhouse Effect” (81 hits)
s/\~n: “Global Warming” and not “Greenhouse Effect” (1482 hits)
s \/ c: “Global Warming” or “Air Pollution” (3216 hits)
s /\ c: “Global Warming” and “Air Pollution” (33 hits)
