expanders and phrases

Boolean Terms and Connectors

Overview of Boolean Terms and Connectors

  • Boolean terms and connectors are essential tools for building effective keyword searches in legal research.
  • These tools include expanders and phrases that enhance the precision and breadth of search results.
  • Usage of expanders and phrases follows the identification of jurisdiction and key issues, as well as the selection of essential terms for the search.

Importance of Keyword Variations

  • Legal research often involves searching the full text of documents.
  • It is necessary to consider multiple keywords and their variations across the text:
    • Plurals
    • Different spellings in various tenses
    • Forms of adjectives or adverbs

Types of Expanders and Connectors

Root Expanders
  • Root expanders are symbols used to find variations of words, particularly verbs, including different tenses and forms such as adjectives or adverbs.
  • Symbol: Typically, the exclamation point ! serves as the root expander.
    • Example: If searching for "impeach," using the root expander will yield results for:
    • Impeachment
    • Impeached
    • Impeaching
  • Importance of Placement:
    • Correct placement of the root expander is crucial to avoid including irrelevant terms.
    • Example Placement:
    • Placing the expander after the second 'N' in "negligence" captures relevant terms like:
      • Negligent
      • Negligently
    • Incorrect placement after the first 'G' yields irrelevant results like "negotiable" and "negativity."
Universal Characters
  • Universal characters are used to replace one or more letters in the middle or at the end of a word.
  • Symbol: Typically, databases utilize the asterisk * as the universal character.
    • Replacement Rules:
    • Each universal character can typically stand for one letter, with a maximum of four characters.
    • Example: Searching for "color***" captures:
    • Colorful
    • Coloring
    • Does not capture "colorfully".
  • Databases often automatically include regular plural forms of terms:
    • Examples include:
    • Ending in "s" (e.g., "cats")
    • Ending in "es" (e.g., "coaches")
    • Ending in "ies" (e.g., "skies")
Phrases
  • Using phrases allows the search to look for specific combinations of words, thus narrowing the search results.
  • Quotation Marks Usage: Enclosing terms within quotation marks signals to the database to search for these words together, creating a phrase search.
    • Example:
    • Searching "hot coffee" versus searching for hot or coffee individually:
      • Without quotes: 33 results (any usage of "hot" or "coffee")
      • With quotes: 5 results (exact phrase "hot coffee")

Practical Application of Expanders and Phrases

  • To perform an effective search regarding custody of children by grandparents when one parent dies, the following example demonstrates the application of Boolean terms, expanders, and phrases:
    • Retain the keywords "grandparents" and "custody."
    • Apply a root expander to the keyword "child" to generate results for both:
    • Child
    • Children
    • Use an asterisk after "die" to include results like:
    • Died
    • Dies
    • Enclose "best interest" in quotation marks to ensure this phrase is searched as a unit.

Conclusion

  • These techniques in Boolean searching allow library researchers and legal professionals to gather comprehensive data while avoiding irrelevant information.
  • The next video will expand on how to define the relationships among these terms to further enhance search strategies.