Reference Lesson
- 1. : Exploring Gale Virtual Reference Library using Boolean Search Terms By Deborah Arroyo, Teacher Librarian
- 2. Overview of The VRL are ebooks the school subscribes to. The VRL includes, but is not limited to multi-volume encyclopedias, biographical collections, handbooks, and specialized reference works. Subjects covered include arts and humanities, biographies, business, government, health, science, social science, and technology.
- 3. Grade Level Standards California School Library Standards (draft) Grades 9-12 Standard 1.3 Identify and locate a variety of resources online and in other formats using effective search strategies: a. Use a variety of search engines and licensed and free databases to locate information appropriate to the need. b. Search for information using advanced search skills (e.g., Boolean operators, adjacency, proximity, wild card symbols, truncation).
- 4. Boolean Search Terms Big 6 Research Organizer Step 3 of the organizer asks you to think of search terms or key words to use when researching the VRL, write them down. Boolean operator AND Use between search terms. Will retrieve results that only have BOTH terms. The Boolean operator AND is most often used and is automatically inserted when using more than one search term. Image courtesy of University of Leicester
- 5. Boolean Search Terms Continued Boolean operator OR Is used two or more search terms and will retrieve results with: Either one or the other terms As well as both terms Will retrieve a larger set of items than if you used AND. Boolean operator NOT Will only retrieve results that do not contain the term which follows after this operator i.e. Lupines not snapdragons
- 7. Practice Questions Using the search terms you have listed do a basic search using the Boolean operator AND, using the Boolean operator OR, and finally using the Boolean operator NOT. What do you notice about the Topic Overview relevancy score on the far right? Do you get more relevant hits with one operator than another?