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Boolean Searching in
Basic and Advanced Search
There are several ways to construct a complex
search using the text entry box. This approach requires some familiarity with the WilsonWeb search syntax, search operators, and the abbreviations for fields in
the HW Wilson databases. The advantage is that you can formulate a very
specific and narrow search that is less dependent on relevancy ranking to
return focused results.
 Boolean Searching using WilsonWeb’s unique search syntax, search
operators, and field abbreviations. Refer to Search/Boolean Operators
for a complete list of possible operators for conducting a complex
structured search using the Verity search engine syntax.
Note: The operators and, or,
not, and in do not require brackets. For example, on the
search screens, the following Boolean searches are possible:
painters or sculptors and italy
(painters or sculptors) and italy — nested search
Bound Phrase Searching
is possible by enclosing the phrase being
searched in quotation marks (""). There are slight differences in how
the Bound Phrase search is conducted on the Advanced Search screen or the
Basic Search screen. For all searches using quotation marks (except when the
All-Smart Search and Author search field is selected on the Advanced Search
screen), in addition to creating a bound phrase, the phrase enclosed turns
off stemming of the words. Stemming for the All-Smart Search and Author
searches must be turned off in the Administrator's Module on the Default
settings page.
Example:
"Greek tragedy"
Enclose
your search phrase in quotation marks to retrieve only hits for that precise
phrase.
Enclose your search phrase in quotation marks to
retrieve only hits for that precise phrase. It is possible to do a bound
phrase search on the Advanced Search screen with any of the individual fields such
as Title, Other titles, Abstract, or Full Text selected.
When considering doing a Bound Phrase search
with the All-Smart Search query, it is important to remember that the
All-Smart Search has unique characteristics. The All-Smart Search
automatically does a bound phrase search in the Subject field, regardless of
whether or not the user has enclosed the terms in quotation marks, returning
the bound phrase near the top of the result set. The distinction in using or
not using quotation marks is:
-
When the user's terms are surrounded by
quotation marks, in addition to the Subject level search, all other fields
(Title, Other titles, Abstract, and Full Text) are searched as a bound
phrase, too.
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When the user's terms are not surrounded
by quotation marks, the All-Smart Search still begins with a subject level
bound phrase search, but the lower ranked fields (Title, Other titles,
Abstract, and Full Text) are searched with an All search, which searches
for documents with all of the words, but not necessarily bound
together in a phrase.
Example
Elimination of stemming.
To eliminate the stemming of individual words
(stemming is automatic in WilsonWeb searching), include quotation marks “”
around the word.
“painting”
Variations such as paint and
painted will not be included
in the search results.
Example Bound Phrase using quotation marks.
When searching the phrase
hudson river watershed, include quotation
marks. This is a bound phrase and prevents stemming of all terms.
"hudson river watershed"
Example Boolean Search using Verity search
engine syntax (Basic Search screen with Boolean radio button selected, only.)
To search for a phrase and include stemmed
variations of the terms in your results, use the <stem> operator
and enclose your phrase in parentheses.
<stem>(hudson river watershed)
Example
Boolean Search using Verity search
engine syntax (used on the Basic Search screen and Advanced Search screen text
entry boxes).
To search for a phrase and include stemmed
variations of the terms in your results, use the <stem> operator and
enclose your phrase in parentheses.
<stem>(hudson river watershed)
Date ranges – to find people born from
1960 to 1962 in a biography database, enter the following into the
entry box, including the short field for year born
byr,
greater than and lesser than
brackets, and = signs:
byr >= 1960 and byr <= 1962
Example - Narrow Your Search with
AND
Searching
To find records that
contain every element included in the search and ranked for relevance, enter
the terms in the
entry box
and use the and operator.
Microsoft and Netscape and Yahoo
Example - Broaden Your Search with
OR
Searching
To find records that
contain any of the elements included in the search and ranked for relevance, enter
the terms in the
entry box
and use the or operator.
Microsoft or Netscape or Yahoo |
