Ethiopian Treasures

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators help you to refine your search on the internet by combining search terms using the the three Boolean operators (i.e. AND, OR, NOT).

AND operator

The AND operator links keywords and retrieves all results that contain both keywords entered. For example: Addis Ababa AND Mekele

OR operator

The OR operator links keywords and find results that contain either or both keywords entered. This finds more information than searching one of the keywords on its own. For example: Addis Ababa OR Mekele

NOT operator

The NOT operator excludes records from your search results which needs to be used carefully. It finds all results that contain the first keyword(s) entered but not the second. For example: Addiss Ababa NOT Mekele.

Quotation marks(" ")

Put words in quotation marks(" ") to link them together. For Example: African elephants should be typed as "African elephants".

• To search the Internet and execute the Boolean search, type keywords separated by the Boolean operators but follow the following guidelines in choosing your keywords before you type in your keywords into the search engine text box.
• Think carefully about the key words you use. The more specific you are, the more successful your search will be.
• Start your search with one or two keywords.
• Try a combination of keywords separated by the Boolean operators.
• Put keywords in quotation marks (" ") to link them together.
• To refine your search use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT).
• Always type Boolean operators in capital letters.
• Make sure your spelling is correct, otherwise your search will be unsuccessful.

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