Advanced Search and Boolean Search Operators
As powerful as Search engines are, there are ways to improve your use of them.
Most Search engines (including Google and Bing) allow you to use similar search syntax as Library Databases do, giving you Smart Advanced search "Boolean" operators (AND / OR / NOT), "Phrase searching" (using "quote marks"), Grouped searches (using (parentheses)), Wildcards, etc.
Different Search engines offer different options, and may use different symbols for the same functions.
See the Library Essentials Library Guide for details.
Search Operators Across Databases and Search Engines
ECU Library Search |
Bing |
DuckDuckGo |
|
Results |
| * | * | * | * | Acts like a wildcard that can take the place of any word or phrase. Example: tallest * in the world |
| NOT | - / NOT | - | - | Excludes results that contain the word following the minus sign. Place this operation at the end of your search query (NOT must be capitalised) |
| OR | OR | Google's default is to look for all the words in your search. Using OR (must be CAPITALISED) will allow you to look for any one or more of the words | ||
| AND | Combines concepts, such as "Australia AND ("Global warming" OR "Climate change"). Must be CAPITALISED. | |||
| "..." | "..." | "..." | "..." | Finds instances of the exact text within the quotation marks everywhere it appears in the search engine’s index |
| (...) | (...) | Groups items together, eg, (filetype:pdf OR filetype:ppt) | ||
| !safeon / !safeoff |
Toggles safe search |
ECU Library Advanced Search, Bing Advanced Search, DuckDuckGo Advanced Search Syntax, Google Refine Searches
Metadata
This is another area where Search engines and Library Databases differ, and where Search engines fall short. Materials in Library Databases have been catalogued by Information Science experts (or "Librarians"), which means that Titles, Authors, Publishers, Subject headings, etc. have been identified, and an Advanced search of a Library Database can narrow your results to these fields.
Web Search engines are not catalogued in this way, and results are mainly returned based on Algorithmic Keyword matching.
Search engines and Library Databases do have machine-designated metadata as well, however, and these can be searched to help locate the material you seek. Such metadata may be the Location or Site, Format and / or the File-type of the document, etc. This can help narrow your results, even if the metadata by itself cannot identify content.
Note: Most of these Catalogue and Metadata details can be combined with the Advanced search operators detailed above.
Metadata Across Databases and Search Engines
ECU Library Search |
Bing |
DuckDuckGo |
|
Results |
| Filter: Location | Allows you to filter from Libraries Worldwide, to ECU only, and specific Campuses | |||
| site: | site: | site: | Restricts the search to pages within a particular domain and all its subdomains | |
| ext: | ext: | ext: | Returns only webpages with the file extension you specify (such as site:gov OR site:edu) | |
| Filter: Format | Allows you to filter your results to show only: Books, eBooks, Articles, Music, Maps, etc. | |||
| filetype: | filetype: | filetype: | Finds results of a single type only (such as pdf) | |
| Advanced search | Allows you to search within specific Fields, such as: Author, Title, Publisher, etc. | |||
| inurl: | inurl: | Finds pages that include a specific keyword in their indexed URLs |
ECU Library Advanced Search, Bing Advanced Search, DuckDuckGo Advanced Search Syntax, Google Refine Searches