## 3.2 Searching with Boolean operators

AND

The AND-operator is used to connect two or more search terms/concepts

- Use AND to narrow a search and retrieve records containing all of the words it separates, e.g. “food retail” AND Netherlands will only find records containing both these words.

OR

The OR-operator is used for synonyms, related terms, plural/single and different ways of spelling

- Use OR to broaden a search and retrieve records containing any of the words it separates, e.g.(”food retail” OR supermarkets) will find records containing “food retail” only, supermarkets only, or both words.

Note: Use of parentheses (round brackets) is required when using the OR-operator.

NOT

The NOT-operator is used to exclude search terms/concepts

- Use NOT to narrow a search and retrieve records that do not contain the term following it, e.g. supermarkets NOT hypermarkets will find records that contain supermarkets, but will not contain the word hypermarkets.
- In Google you have to use a dash (-) instead of NOT.

Note: Be careful when using the NOT-operator! You may unintentionally exclude relevant documents from your results!