This is an introductory guide on how to search effectively for undergraduate students in Sociology. Don't know where to start or need further assistance? You can chat with one of our many reference librarians or library assistants on duty by clicking the Chat icon at the top right of your screen.
Learn how to develop effective search terms like a pro with the 4-minute video below by Winona State University's Krueger Library.
Boolean Logic, or Boolean Search Operators as they are sometimes called, is the use of conjunctions to combine terms or exclude keywords within a search, resulting in a more refined search result. This process helps save time and effort by "dropping" irrelevant hits.
Boolean Operators:
AND (Narrows search results by including only resources that have BOTH of your required keywords)
OR (Expands search results to contain resources with EITHER of your required keywords)
NOT (Limits search results by EXCLUDING resources that contain the keyword that follows the operator)
Quotation Marks " " (Used around keywords to group them as an exact phrase)
Parenthesis ( ) (Used to give priority to keywords within the parenthesis over other terms outside of the parenthesis)