Three Little Words--And, Or, and Not

When you search for information, three of the most important words in the English language are also three of the most common:  and, or, and not.  These words are called Boolean modifiers.

George Boole (1815-1864) was an English mathematician and logician whose work makes him one of the most important influences on the history of the computer, even though electronic computers were not invented until the twentieth century.  Computers complete millions of functions based on the way Boole’s work classifies information, called Boolean logic.  

You can use Boolean logic to make internet and database searching much simpler.  An article at http://www.knowledgecenter.unr.edu/help/using/booltips.aspx explains how using the words and, or¸ and not can help you get better results with your search terms.  For example:

	If you type in the search box…	Your hits will include…	But not…
1	healthcare and marketing	Every article that includes both the words healthcare and marketing	Articles that have only one of those words.
2	healthcare or marketing	Every article that includes the words healthcare, marketing¸ or both	Articles that do not include either of those words.
3	healthcare not marketing	Every article that includes the word healthcare but not the word marketing	Articles that include the word marketing and/or do not include the word healthcare.

Which of those three search methods could give you the most results?  Answer:  #2 because it will include all the results of #1 and #3 and probably more.

 

If you are researching healthcare marketing, do you think you should use #1, 2, or 3 in the chart above?  #1 is probably the best because you know that every article will include both healthcare and marketing.  #3 is the worst choice because you would not find any articles that include the term marketing, which you want, and #2 is not as good as #1 because it will include some articles that you want and some that you don’t, such as those that are about only healthcare or only marketing.

Hmm…If we’re researching ways that people market healthcare, we should remember that health care sometimes is written as two separate words.  How can we be sure that we can get articles about “healthcare marketing” and “health care marketing”? 

Some databases and search engines have an “advanced search” feature, allowing you to make more than one requirement.  Even if they don’t, you can still try searching for a search term along the lines of marketing and (“health care” or healthcare).  This will give you articles feature the word marketing and either the term health care or the word healthcare.   (Note that the quotation marks show that we are looking for the exact term health care, with the two words next to each other.)

Note:  Our online catalog at http://opac.libraryworld.com does not use Boolean modifies.  As far our catalog is concerned, and, or, and not are just words to search for.