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.