For instance, if america online gets too few results, try america online or aol Using AND retrieves all the items that contain both of the phrases. For instance, if bald eagles gives too many irrelevant results, try bald eagles and nesting Using AND NOT excludes irrelevant items. For instance, you may search on Homer to find out about the Greek poet, but retrieve irrelevant items about Homer Simpson. Modify your search to Homer and not Simpson . Use parentheses to combine operators.
Some databases automatically search for the various forms of words.
For instance, a search on house may find document containing house or houses. In other databases, you must use truncation symbols to find all forms of a word. See the help menu for the database you are searching. Modify the fields you're searching in. Most databases offer some way to specify the fields you search in.