Using the UF Libraries' Catalog

AND, OR and NOT

These operators are used to combine terms in searching.

• Use AND to narrow your results to records containing BOTH terms: internet AND security.



• Use OR to broaden your results to records containing EITHER term: automobile OR car.



• Use NOT to narrow your results to those records that have one term without having the other:
  
  
  • "orange NOT county" would retrieve records with the term orange that do not have the term county.
  
  
  
  • "dolphins NOT football" would retrieve records with the term dolphins that do not have the term football.
  
  
• Use parentheses ( ) to "nest" terms if you use more than one type of operator in your search:
  
  
  • "obesity AND (children or teen?)" would retrieve records with the term obesity that also have either the term children or a term beginning with teen.