North Carolina Periodicals Index

Boolean Searching

Boolean connectors (and, or, not) may be used in the first dialog box of the search screen. Only two words may be connected in this way.

Examples:
health and insurance (locates records containing both of these words)
schools or colleges (locates all records containing either of these words)
transportation not public (locates records containing "transportation" but not "public")

Additional Boolean commands may be used in subsequent dialog boxes by clicking on the arrow to the left of the boxes and selecting a connector (and, or, not). Do not use Boolean connectors within these three dialog boxes.

Truncation and Phrases

You may type a word fragment (truncation) to search for records that contain words beginning with that fragment.

Example:
educat (locates records containing the words educate, education, educators, etc.)

You may search for a phrase without using Boolean connectors. It is not necessary to put the phrase in quotation marks.

Examples:
Civil War
National Register of Historic Places

Searching Records and Fields

You may search entire records or specific fields in any of the dialog boxes. Entire records will be searched unless you use the arrows to the right of the dialog boxes to search author, title, subject, journal title, or abstract fields.

Limiting Searches

Searches may be limited to one journal title or by date. To limit to one journal title, click on the arrow to the right of the Periodical Name box and then click on the name of the periodical you wish to select. To limit by date, click on the arrows adjacent to the Year of publication boxes and then click on a beginning and ending date.