Using Search Operators
Note: the following search operators can be used in HOLLIS, HOLLIS Images, and Databases.
Exact Phrase
Use quotation marks to search for your terms as an exact phrase. Great for title searches.
Boolean Connectors
AND, OR, and NOT must be in all caps to be recognized as operators.
NSA OR "National Security Agency"
Order of Operations
Use parentheses to define the order of operations.
("Affordable Care Act" OR Obamacare) AND "birth control"
Wildcards
? matches a single character and * matches multiple characters.
Other punctuation marks
Generally, you can include or omit punctuation marks and diacritics, and your search results will be the same. There are some exceptions:
- You may observe slightly different behaviors in Basic Search and Advanced Search as compared to Starts with/Browse. For example, in Search, a hyphen and a space are considered the same, while in Browse they are not.
- If you are working with Korean translations, it’s useful to know that alif cannot be searched as a comma.
BOOKMARK - PDF VERSION
- "Search Smarter" BookmarkReady reference list of the search commands HOLLIS uses plus five simple steps to improve your searching - copies available at many library service desks
Still Looking?
- HOLLIS FAQs - how-tos, troubleshooting, etc.
- Ask a Librarian - search advice specific to your research topic
- Staff-facing HOLLIS system documentation
