Boolean searching Boolean searching Boolean searching is method of combining two or more search terms to increase or restrict the amount found by a search in a catalogue, database or search engine. The three main commands are OR , AND and NOT .
Most databases offer Boolean searching.
For instance, if you type in itch or scratch the search engine in the database will find all the records that have either of these words or both words in them. So you should get quite a lot of hits. All you need to know is that Boolean searching allows you greater control over the way that you search. The AND operator is used to reduce the number of hits you get. When you use AND the search engine only returns records that have all the specified terms in them.