Boolean searching is the traditional way to search for information in most online databases and on the Internet.
To perform a Boolean search, use connectors (called operators) like AND, OR and NOT.
AND retrieves records that contain ALL of the search terms. For example, cooking AND Spain, business AND ethics.
OR retrieves records that contain ANY of the search terms, but does not necessarily include all of them. For example, theater OR theatre, www OR world wide web.
NOT excludes records containing the second search term. For example, java NOT coffee, Clinton NOT (William OR Bill).
Think of it like this, AND /INCLUDE; OR/ BROADEN; NOT/ EXCLUDE
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To find out more about an author:
Google the author's name or dig deeper in the library's biographical source databases.
To find scholarly sources:
When searching library article databases, look for a checkbox to narrow your results to Scholarly, Peer Reviewed or Peer Refereed publications.
The last three letters of any domain name is its suffix. Suffixes are categories of Internet domain names that serve to describe the type of company, organization, or other category that is represented. This becomes significant when doing your research as it might indicate bias or emphasis that isn’t suitable.
Commonly used domain names: do YOU know what they signify?
.COM
.EDU
.NET
.CA
.ORG
Do you use Wikipedia? This site will tell you why it is not a good source for your research projects.