Use AND to find records that contain two search terms. This narrows your search because BOTH terms must be found. OR widens the scope of your search and it should be used with care, because it can produce large sets of results. Find items with the words last and days, but not Sophocles. Truncation Shortening, or truncating, a word allows a broader search.
Databases require the use of a special symbol to show a word has been truncated.
FirstSearch is unusual in that it doesn't offer true truncation capabilities. Wildcards Wildcards are used to allow variable letter combinations with a term. The symbol for a wildcard can vary from database to database. It pays to check the database's help screen to see if it offers wildcard capability and what the symbol is.