Support to NKBL action research participants.

1. No Knives Better Lives Action Research Project
How to do a Boolean search

2.  Searching the internet is useful for all aspects of modern life.
 Switch on your phone and the google search symbol
appears.
 Often when you search using key words there are thousands
of results.
 Now you can make your searches smarter.
 It’s quick & easy.
 Use it for the NKBL project, shopping online and exploring
the world around you.
Why we need to learn about Boolean
searches

3.  Make sure you include all of
the words you want to search
with quotation marks for each
word:
 E.g. “knife” “carrying”
 This means you will search
both knife and carrying.
Exact Word Search
“Knife” “carrying”

4.  To search for two or more words
in a certain order use quotation
marks
 E.g. “Knife crime”
 In this search knife and crime
must appear together.
Phrase searching
“knife crime”

5.  Putting AND or the + symbol
between search words means
that it will search both A and B.
 This is particularly useful for
narrowing the search to certain
areas
 E.g. “Knife crime”+ Glasgow
 When you do this the search will
prioritise where both knife crime
and Glasgow appear together in a
document.
Using ‘AND’ or ‘+’
“Knife crime”+ Glasgow

6.  An asterisk is used to find
unknown words.
 E.g. “violent *”
 In this example it would search all
terms pre-fixed with violent such
as violent crime, or violent
offence.
Wild cards *
“violent *”

7.  In the last example the search will
show up an American band called
‘violent femmes’ to exclude them
from your search use AND NOT or ‘-
’
 E.g. “violent *” –”violent femmes”
 All references to violent femmes
are then removed.
 This is useful to remember when
you want to remove certain areas
from your search (E.g. if you want
to remove all references to England
type –England)
Using ‘AND NOT’ or ‘-’
“knife crime”-England

8.  Putting OR between search words
means that it will search either A
or B.
 E.g. knife OR weapon
 When you do this only one of
them will appear in the search
results
Using ‘OR’
knife OR weapon

9.  You can do more complex
searches by combining
operators.
 E.g. “knife” (crime OR carrying
OR weapon)+Glasgow
 This search will look for knife
and only one of the three words
in the brackets where they
appear with the word Glasgow.
Combinations
“knife” (crime OR carrying
OR weapon)+Glasgow

10. Remember to check it out
with your youth worker if
you have any questions.
Happy
Searching!