Boolean Operators
Boolean operators or connectors can be used to improve your search results. When using either the simple or advanced search, you can use either AND, OR, or NOT. You can also group them together.
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AND narrows a search. It is the default search method used in the simple search.
This search ... ... would find ... these results. historic and preservation records with both of these words [View results of sample search] historic and preservation and courthouse* records with all three of these words and their variants [View results of sample search] -
OR broadens a search.
This search ... ... would find ... these results. historic or preservation records with either or both these words [View results of sample search] historic or preservation or courthouse* records with any combination of these words or their variants [View results of sample search] -
NOT eliminates terms from a search.
This search ... ... would find ... these results. cooking not cake records with crowd that don't contain cake [View results of sample search] cooking not cake* records with cooking that don't contain variants of cake [View results of sample search] -
You can also group search terms together to create more complex searches by using parentheses.
This search ... ... would find ... these results. pigs and hogs or farm records with pigs and hogs or records with farm [View results of sample search] pigs and (hogs or farm) records with pigs and hogs or records with pigs and farm [View results of sample search]