Week 6 / Boolean Search

Boolean Searching Strategies*

Directions: Post all answers for both sections to your blog.

Watch the Boolean presentation before completing this exercise.

The following candies are records in your database. They have the following properties:

Twix contain chocolate, cookie, and caramel
Caramel Kisses chocolate and caramel
Snickers contain chocolate, caramel, and nuts
Kit Kat contain chocolate and cookie
Caramels contain caramel (!)

What would be the results of the following search statements?

Example: If my Boolean statement is Chocolate AND Caramel, the results in my candy database (those candies that contain both chocolate and caramel) would be Twix, Caramel kisses, & Snickers. Now you try it:


1. Caramel NOT Nuts = twix, caramel kisses, kit kat, caramels

2. Chocolate OR Caramel = twix, caramel kisses, snickers, kit kat, caramels

3. (Chocolate AND Caramel) NOT Cookie = caramel kisses, snickers

4. Chocolate OR Nuts = twix, caramels kisses, snickers, kit kat

5. Cookie AND Chocolate = twix, kit kat

6. Chocolate NOT Caramel = kit kat

7. Nuts OR Caramel = twix, caramel kisses, snickers, caramels


*We highly recommend that you use this exercise as an excuse to eat candy. The candy pieces are the records in your (chocolaty) database!

Searching Haystac


1. Go to the library home page (http://library.csueastbay.edu).

Run a Keyword search on the following term: Colonialism

How many hits did you get? 352

Who is the author of the first work on your results list? Benjamin B. Cohen
What type of work is this? EBook


2. Click "modify search" to go to the library catalog’s Advanced Search page. Add United States to the second search box. Leave colonialism in the first box.

How many results did you get? 47

Find the result authored by Kharem, Haroon.

What's the title of this work?
A curriculum of repression : a pedagogy of racial history in the United States

What is the Call Number? LC2741 .K53 2006

Where in the library would you go to get this book? (hint--check the library floor plans by following the Maps link at the very bottom of the library home page)

section 11, upper mall, rear stacks

Use the information in the record for this work to create an APA citation.
Refer the APA Citation Guidelines handout from week 2 for help.

Haroon, K. (2006). A curriculum of repression: A Pedagogy of racial history in the United States. New York: P. Lang.



3. Click "back" on your browser, then "modify search." In the search box, add Britain to create the statement (United States OR Britain). Remember that OR widens your search results, instructing the library catalog to return all results with "united states" or "Britain" somewhere in the record, and also the term "colonialism."

How many results did you get? 72

What is the title of the first work on your results list?
Open your eyes : deaf studies talking


List two subject headings for this work (hint: try "more details")
Deaf -- Congresses
Deaf -- Social conditions -- Congresses


Look carefully at this record. Why did the library catalog pull up this book (where did it find a match for your search phrase?)
The keywords “colonialism” and “United States” were found, and highlighted, under the contents sections of “more details”.


Use the information in the record for this work to create an APA citation. Refer to the APA Citation Guidelines handout from week 2 for help.
Bauman, H-Dirsken L. (Ed.). (2008). Open your eyes: Dead Studies Talking.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.



4. Return to the main Haystac search page (you can click Another Search). Type the following into the first search box: global warming

Under Limits, choose "Reference Collection" from the location menu.

Under Sorted By: Search and Sort, choose "sorted bv date"


What is the title of the most recent work (top of the list)
Endangered Species


Where in the library would you find this?
Ref stacks, LM


5. Now start over and run a search for a video about global warming (search and sort by date).

What is the most recently produced video in the library?
An Inconvenient Truth

What is this video's call number?
DVD 572

Where in the library would you go to get this?
MRR, UM