(2017-03) Hanna, Kathleen A.; Lowe, M. Sara; Maxson, Bronwen K.; Miller, Willie; Snajdr, Eric; Stone, Sean M.
Are searches that use Boolean operators better than natural language (phrase) searches? Librarians are led to believe this by common practice in reference and instruction; yet, a study of the efficacy of Boolean searches reveals a sea change, especially in first-year instruction. This poster will highlight results of a study, which compared simple Boolean search queries versus natural language searches in eight popular databases.