Bentley Library Orientation: Getting to Know the Bentley Library

For best results, always remember to sign in to your library account before searching!

Use Boolean Operators  - AND, OR, NOT

Boolean searching refers to searching using a combination of words and the three Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT. To use Boolean operators within search phrases, you must enter them in uppercase letters. Otherwise, the operators are removed and the search changes to a simple search that includes each word that appears in the phrase.

• AND will make your search smaller. If you are retrieving too many records on your topic, try adding another search term with the operator AND.

For example: "gen z" AND “social media” AND marketing

• OR will make your search bigger. If you are retrieving too few records on your topic, try adding another search term with the operator OR. 

For example: adolescents OR teenagers

• NOT will exclude a word from your search results. If you are retrieving too many records on an unrelated topic, try eliminating a word with the operator NOT.

For example: cloud NOT computer

Grouping Search Terms

Use parentheses ( ) to group search terms and to clarify the order of multiple Boolean operators. 

For example: (teen* OR adolescents) AND (smoking OR vaping)

Search for Exact Phrases

To search for two or more words in the exact order in which they are entered, enclose the phrase in quotation marks (" ").

For example: "first generation college student"

Truncation & Wildcards

• Truncation allows you to search the root form of a word with all its different endings by adding an asterisk (*) to the end of a word. 

For example: advertis* will search for advertise, advertisement, advertising, advertises

• Use a question mark (?) to perform a single character wildcard search.

For example: wom?n will search for woman, women

Use "Expand My Results" to locate additional resources

Library Search prioritizes items owned by Bentley Library and resources that are available to Bentley users in full-text, but it indexes much more content that is not immediately available. Selecting the Expand My Results box after you perform search will broaden your search to items beyond the library's collection which may be requested via Interlibrary Loan.