Performing Precise Searches....

As you progress with your project, you may find it necessary to perform more precise searching in order to obtain just the "right" information for your project. Here are some techniques and ideas to consider.

Boolean Searching

Boolean AND: Narrows your search to include documents that contain BOTH keywords.

• Harrison AND Ford

Boolean OR: Broadens your search to include ANY of the keywords.

• Use for alternative spellings such as Chanukah OR Hanukkah.
• Use for terms which may mean the same such as murder OR homicide.

Boolean NOT: Narrows search by excluding one meaning of a word.

• chiefs BUT NOT Kansas City

Truncation: Searches on the root of the word adding different word endings or plurals.

• Politi* searches politician, politics, political, ....
• Some engines truncate automatically, so tribe may also retrieve tribes and tribal

Symbols: By adding + or - in front of a word you are saying that the word MUST or MUST NOT be included in the "hits" (another name for the results of your search).

• Pocahontas - Disney (information about the woman NOT Disney movie)
• Pocahontas + Disney (information about the woman in the Disney movie)

Phrase: Searches a phrase or words that have a unique meaning when linked:

• "Wounded Knee" - you add the quotes
• (My Lai Massacre) - you add the parenthesis

Proximity: Searches one word nearby another word.

• tribal gaming
• Indian NEAR casinos

Case Sensitive: Most engines do not recognize capital letters.

• Mustang and mustang (the car and the horse) are treated identically.
• AIDS and aids (the disease and the verb) are treated identically.

Other Ways to Evaluate or Refine your Hits

Relevance: The engine calculates how well the hits matches your search request and ranks them in order of relevance.

• Pages which have your keywords in the heading or first paragraph are ranked high.
• Pages in which your keywords appear frequently are ranked high.

Query by Example: The engine has an option of asking for similar pages when you find a good hit.

Having trouble forming your search?

Natural Language: When it is hard for you to design your search precisely, some engines allow you to ask for information as if you were thinking aloud.

I want to know about the treaties that Native Americans made when they went to reservations is treated as treaties AND Native Americans AND reservations.

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