Basic Search Tips

Follow

The Search box is located at the top center of each page.

 To Search

  • Enter a search term in the Search box.
  • Click the magnifying glass button to the right of the Search box or press Enter on your keyboard.

You can search using keywords or a specific phrase. Capitalization does not matter.

Results are sorted into tabs: Articles, Primary Sources, Images. Search results are returned sorted by relevance.

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators—AND, OR, NOT—can be added to search terms to refine results. If no operator is added, the AND operator is used automatically.

  1. Enter a search term. Examples:
         a. slavery and war
         b. slavery or war
         c. slavery not war

  2. Results include:
         a. all articles with all of the search terms, slavery as well as war.
         b. all articles with either of the search terms, slavery or war or both.
         c. only articles without the excluded search term, articles with slavery that do not include war.

Phrase Search

Use double quotation marks to define an exact phrase or phrases.

  1. Examples:
         a. "george washington"
         b. "george washington" and independence
         c. "george washington" and "founding father"

  2. Results include:
         a. Articles with George Washington together as a phrase
         b. Articles with George Washington as a phrase that also contain independence
         c. Articles with George Washington as a phrase that also contain founding father as a phrase

Note: The Boolean operators OR and NOT can also be used in a Phrase Search. AND is the default.

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