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MUAG 4740/MUSM 5285: Seminar in Sacred Music/Introduction to Congregational Singing

Guide to find resources related to hymnology and sacred music to assist with research projects.

AND, OR, NOT

Purpose: Use Boolean operators to search with strategy

Boolean operators, or connectors, are used to retrieve relevant results. The Boolean operators are the conjunctions AND, OR, NOT. Boolean logic derives from mathematician, George Boole.

  • Searching with AND connects words/phrases. The results must have both terms in the results.
  • Searching with OR will contain results with either search word/phrase indicated but not necessarily both terms on either side of OR.
  • Searching with NOT excludes a specific word/phrase. The results will contain the term appearing before the connector "NOT" but will exclude the term after the connector "NOT."

These concepts are represented with Venn diagrams in the tables below.

Boolean Operators Table

The table below is a summary of the AND, OR, NOT Boolean operators with Venn Diagrams as a visual representation included.
Boolean Operator Results Scope

AND

Venn diagram demonstrating Boolean operator AND                                                                      

 

Using the Boolean connector AND, search results must contain the search words Beethoven AND quartets.

 Narrow

OR

Boolean operator demonstrating Boolean operator OR

 Using the Boolean connector OR, search results contain either Beethoven OR quartets in the results. Broad

NOT

Boolean operator demonstrating Boolean operator OR

 Using the connector NOT, search results exclude Beethoven from a search for quartets. Exclusionary

Complex Searches with two operators

Complex Boolean search

 Building a search with multiple Boolean operators (AND, NOT), search results must contain information about Beethoven and quartets but no results about Schubert snuck into the results. Complex searches are an artform! Depends: Can be a combination of broad and narrow

Boolean Operators Poll

What Boolean operator is used to narrow the scope of a search?
AND: 1 votes (100%)
OR: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 1

Self Assessment

Test your knowledge of Boolean operators. This is ungraded and for your own edification! Correct answers are provided.

 

 

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