National Archives and Records Administration
Hoover Oval Logo
<H1>The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum</H1>
Home Page
Welcome
Research
Visiting the Library
The Galleries

For Students
Gift Shop
Education
Programs
West Branch
Membership
Related Sites
Mailbox




Search Tips | Search

HOW TO USE THE SEARCH ENGINE

Getting Started with Queries

Operators are special words used by Search products which indicate the search rule. You can search for any of the words or phrases in the text of the document You use operators in your queries to search for:

  • Word combinations

back to top

Word Combination Operators

Word combination operators tell Search products how to search for combinations of words, phrases, or a word and a phrase:

  • <AND> all words must exist in each document to be considered a match
  • <OR> any one of the words can be found to create a match (at least one)

To use the word combination operators, enter the first word or phrase, then the operator, then another word or phrase. Search will search for both the preceding and following word or phrase according to the operator rule.

    Example: gorbachev <AND> yeltsin
    Retrieves documents containing both "gorbachev" and "yeltsin".

    Example: vacuum cleaner <OR> eureka
    Retrieves documents containing the phrase "vacuum cleaner" or the word "eureka".

    Example: eureka <AND> vacuum cleaner
    Searches for documents containing "eureka" and the phrase "vacuum cleaner".

You may use more than one of these operators in a query. Most operators require that you place angle brackets ( < > ) around the operator to clearly distinguish its meaning. Default operators and modifiers do not require that you add angle brackets; <AND> and <OR> are assumed to be operators and <NOT> is assumed to be a modifier when used.

We recommend keeping your operator combinations fairly simple. Simple combinations produce more predictable results, and ensure that Search will be able to read the combinations.

Using Modifiers

Modifiers modify the operator search rule, generally adding an additional level of detail. Use them to increase the accuracy of your queries.

  • <NOT> exclude documents with this word, phrase, or value (the <NOT> modifier will also retrieve all documents that do not contain the search value)

back to top

Rules for Adding Modifiers

A search word or value must have an operator in order to use a modifier.

<NOT> applies to any word, phrase or topic.

    Example: gorbachev <AND> <NOT> yeltsin
    Retrieves documents with "gorbachev" excluding any which also contain "yeltsin".

back to top




National Archives and Records Administration
URL: http://www.hoover.archives.gov/research/searchtips.html
hoover.webmaster@nara.gov
Last updated: November 10, 1999