Guide to Searching Selected NDSU Libraries Online Databases

 

Truncation/Wildcard

Boolean

Proximity

Dates / Ranges

ODIN

*

?

The asterisk or question mark can be placed at the left, right or middle of a portion of a word, but it can never be used more than once in a text string.

AND

OR

NOT

 

A space between words works the same as an AND.

 

Put AND, OR, NOT in quotation marks if they are part of a phrase.

 

ODIN is not case sensitive.

 

%

The % symbol, followed by a number, can be placed between two words to indicate that you want the words to appear within a particulardistance from each other, irrespective of what order the words appear in. For example, england %3 ballads will retrieve Ballads of England , Ballads of Merry Olde England and England and Her Ballads.

Search from the Advanced Search or Expert Search screen to limit by dates or a range of dates. Other limiters are provided on the search pages below the Search For box.

#

The # symbol can be used to find variant spellings in cases where one version of the word has one more character than another version. For example, colo#r will find both color and colour; and arch#eology will find both archaeology and archeology.

!

The ! character can be used to find variant spellings in cases where a single character may vary. For example, wom!n will retrieve both woman and women.

Truncation/Wildcard

Boolean

Proximity

Dates / Ranges

EbscoHost

*

 

Enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an *. EBSCOhost finds all forms of that word.

AND

OR

NOT

 

If you use parentheses with the Boolean operators, the terms inside the parentheses are processed first.

Wn

(w3)

within; word after w occurs within n words after the word that is before the w

Basic Search: use date range selection box 

 

?

Enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?.

Nn

(n3)

near; in same sentence, either order, number how close, i.e. 3

ProQuest

*

 

any number of characters

AND

OR

NOT

 

Order:

left to right

 

Use ( ) to clarify order

W/n

within; word after w occurs within n words after the word that is before the w

Basic Search:  use date range selection box

?

one character             (can use as ***)

NOT/W n

occurrences of word before and after NOT/W n at least n+1 words apart.

 

variant spelling is an option in preferences

PRE/n

word before PRE/n precedes word following by up to n words

W/DOC

word before and word after must both be in document

SPIRS

*

0 or any number of characters

AND

OR

NOT

 

Use ( ) to clarify order

adj

includes both terms in exact order

WebSPIRS: use Limit Your Search button on search page.

?

0 or one characters

with

both terms in same field

near5

in same sentence, either order, number how close, i.e. 5

?

A single letter within a word. Must be a letter present. (I.e., ne?t will get next but not net.)

 

Wn

(W3)

within; word after w occurs within n words after the word that is before the w

 

FirstSearch

+

for plurals using –s or

--es

AND

OR

NOT

 

Order:

left to right

 

Processes nested ( ) phrases first, clarifies order.

 

Use “ “ to define Boolean terms not used as operators.

w

with; combines adjacent terms in order

Limit options are available using the Limit icon on the top of the results list.

*

any number of characters

w3

between words, in order, not more than 3 words in between (1-25)

#

one character

n

near; combines adjacent terms in either order

?

zero – 9 characters within a word

n4

between words, in any order, not more than 4 words between (1-25)

?2

maximum of 2 characters within a word (up to 9)

CSA

*

 

Replaces any number of characters after the root word.

AND

OR

NOT

 

Order: ( )

near

not

and

or

 

Use ( ) to clarify order

 

within #

The word following the number (#) occurs within # words on either side of the word that is before within

Basic Search: use date range selection box 

 

Guided Search: use selection boxes for specific date ranges

*

Replaces multiple characters within a word

No operator

Reads words as a phrase

?

One character truncation or wildcard

near

Finds words within 10 words of each other (same as within 10)

before

Relative order. Doesn’t imply adjacency.

after

Relative order, doesn’t imply adjacency.

Elsevier

ScienceDirect

!

 

Replaces any number of characters after the root word.

AND

OR

NOT

 

 

 

Basic or advanced search:  use date range selection box

*

Replaces one character within a word

*

Used at the end of a word, will replace characters up to the number of *’s. (I.e., ** will replace up to two characters)

9/30/2005