IRIS 42: Information and Research Instruction Suite for two-year colleges

Getting Rid of Ideas

Use the operator 'NOT' to eliminate words

Sometimes you want to eliminate certain concepts. This is where the NOT comes in. It directs the database to ignore records eliminated with NOT. Using NOT narrows a search.

students AND internet NOT elementary

librarians tip
Frankly, NOT can be very confusing. You also run the risk of eliminating articles that might have good parts that you want. Unless you really understand how to use NOT, it's best to leave it alone.

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