Boolean search refers to how multiple terms that you may enter the combined in search: AND requires that both terms be found while OR lets either term be found. NOT means any records containing the second terms will be excluded. ( ) means the Boolean operators can be nested using parentheses. + is equivalent to AND; the + should be placed directly in front of the search terms. - is equivalent to NOT and means to exclude the term; the - – should also be placed directly in the front of the search term. Operators can be entered in the case shown by example.

EXAMPLE: (mystery and (writer or author) not novel or you may say + mystery – novel writer author.

Default operation is what happens when multiple terms are entered for a search using no Boolean operations, + or – symbols, phrase marks, or other special features. Example: if you enter family tree, different search engines would respond differently. It could be processed as family AND tree, family OR tree or “two terms” as exact phrase.

Proximity search refer to the ability to specify how close within a document found terms should be to each other. The most commonly used proximity search option is a “phrase search” that require terms to be in the exact order specified. The default standard for identifying phrases is to use double quotes (““ ) to surround the phrase.

Example: “to be or not to be” this expression would not be found in any other way as all the words used in are very common and not taken not of by search engine. Other proximity operators can specify how close two terms should be each other. Some also specify the order of the search terms.