Back to Table of Contents

 

COMBINING SEARCH TERMS

 

Combining Search Terms Using Boolean Operators

To combine search terms in the Basic Search the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT can be used.

 

Note: The operators AND, OR, and NOT must be entered in English using capital letters.

 

AND	Finds documents containing all of the search terms joined with AND
OR	Finds documents containing at least one of the search terms joined by OR
NOT	Finds documents containing the search term preceding NOT but not containing the search term following NOT

 

When more than one search term is entered without a combination operator, the search terms are automatically joined with AND.

Examples:

Use the operator AND to find documents containing all of the search terms entered.

General Index:      Propaganda NSDAP
Results:                Documents will be found that have an index entry for both Propaganda and NSDAP.

Fulltext:                 Propaganda NSDAP
Results:                Documents will be found that contain both terms in the fulltext.

Entering the search Propaganda AND NSDAP will give you the same results in each case.


Use the operator OR when you are searching for documents that contain at least one of your search terms.

General Index:      Invasion OR Invasionstruppen
Results:                Documents that have an index entry for Invasion or for Invasionstruppen or for both terms.

Fulltext:                 Invasion OR Invasionstruppen
Results:                Documents that contain one or both of the terms in the fulltext.

Use the NOT operator when you want to exclude certain terms.

General Index:      Herzfelde NOT Heartfield
Results:                Documents that are indexed under Herzfelde but not under Heartfield.

Fulltext:                 Herzfelde NOT Heartfield
Results:                 Documents that contain the term Herzfelde, but not the term Heartfield in the fulltext.

 

 

Phrase Search

A phrase consists of several words enclosed in quotation marks, designating a prescribed expression or a specified word order. Thus a phrase search will only find records containing the search terms occurring in the order in which they were entered.

 

Examples:

"im Braunen Haus" or

"Rede auf dem NSDAP Parteitag" or

"Blut und Boden"