How to Search the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature (Simple Search) Table of Contents 1.  Keywords 2.  Phrases 3.  Truncation 4.  Boolean Operators 5.  Using Parentheses   1. Keywords Keyword queries search in the author, title, subject, and abstract fields. Multiple keywords are automatically joined by a hidden "AND" operator, thus requiring results to contain all keywords you have entered. example: jane geever guide Keywords that appear in your results list will be in bold. 2. Phrases For exact phrase searching, enclose the terms in quotation marks. Phrase searching is especially important when searching for a title or phrase that contains common stop words such as "the", "to", "for", or "and". examples: "business plan" "Guide to Proposal Writing" 3. Trucation Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words. example: fund* (This will retrieve entries such as funds, funders, funding, fundraiser, fundraising, etc.) 4. Boolean Operators You can expand or narrow your search by using the follwing Boolean operators: Use capital "OR" to retrieve records that contain any of the terms entered. example: Arts OR theater Use the minus sign "-" right before the term you would like to exclude from your search (the Boolean NOT command). example: Arts -theater Remember that multiple keywords are automatically joined by a hidden "AND" operator, thus requiring results to contain all keywords you have entered. example: Arts theater 5. Using Parentheses While searches are generally performed in left-to-right order, you can use parentheses to control the search order. example: proposals (sample OR examples) This will first perform the search within the parentheses and then return results that also include the keyword outside the parentheses.