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Using AND, OR, NOT

AND: You may use the connector "and" to combine terms in a KEYWORD search. "And" means that all search terms must be present in records retrieved. For example: grains and cereals
retrieves only records in which BOTH "grains" and "cereals" appear.

Using "and" NARROWS a search.

OR: You may use the connector "or" in a KEYWORD search to search on several alternative terms at once. Use "or" when you want to see all the records which contain ANY of the terms you specify. For example: mice or gerbils
retrieves all records in which either "mice" or "gerbils" appears. 
For example: galax* or nebula*
retrieves all records in which either "galax" appears as a root word (galaxy, galaxies) or "nebula" appears as a root word (nebula, nebulae).
You may use "or" to search for variant spellings For example: cataloger or cataloguer
Using "or" EXPANDS a search.
NOT: You may use the connector "not" (or "no") in a KEYWORD search to exclude a term. Using "not" narrows a search. For example: lizards not reptiles
retrieves all records which contain "lizards" but excludes those which also contain the word "reptiles".
For example galax* not novel*
retrieves all records which contain "galaxy" or "galaxies" but excludes those which also contain "novel" or "novels".