Recently, on a mailing list that I’m on, there has been intense discussion about the use of Boolean logic for searching. The discussion has been centred around Library catalogues, however it does have implications for other search sites as well.
With the plethora of search engines, search sites, and other ways of searching available, I’m curious to examine this topic in a larger context. Some questions in my mind are:
- Do users of our services use Boolean logic?
- If they don’t, why don’t they? Is it because its too hard? Is it because it’s not intuitive?
- Do people train their users in the use of Boolean logic?
- If Boolean logic is too hard for users, do our search services need to get smarter?
I’m interested in other peoples thoughts and opinions on this topic. You can either leave a comment, or email me directly. My email address is listed on my profile page.
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November 22, 2006 at 10:30
Took me a full 6 weeks to understand Boolean searching as a library student. I wouldn’t pass the course without understanding it – good motivation. Although we cover it in the compulsory user ed. for 1st years, I don’t know how many people understand it.
Do any school librarians know whether it is covered in high school or primary school computing at all? That would be the best place.
I’d presumed understanding about ANDS and ORS had seeped into general knowledge…but now wonder whether it’s like assessing how authoritative a website is – you’d expect people to be able to do it, but most people can’t.
November 22, 2006 at 10:48
We had an event at MPOW yesterday that was attended by a school librarian from a private school nearby.
She was talking about a recent survey that she had carried out with the year 12 students and was keen to let us know that they knew what Boolean searching was.
So we are looking forward to at least some first year students who have a clue about it.
Another librarian at the event said that “everyone does Boolean they just don’t know what it’s called. We all know AND and OR…”
Anyone want to read about George Boole and his eponymous logic?
November 27, 2006 at 11:40
I am almost always irritated by librarians using the term boolean logic and including venn diagrams in their explanation. I studied maths and logic and knew about boolean logic before I became a librarian but I have to say that users in the main don’t really care about boolean logic – they just want a result. Using the term boolean logic is more likely to be confusing – I don’t use the term at all when I explain database searching.
November 30, 2006 at 21:10
Some people seem to get it, and some don’t. To my mind it’s become less useful these days with the ability to search full text; truncation and near/within operators are far more useful than simply and/or/not. However, I agree with Melissa – calling it Boolean logic is like talking about OPACs all the time – pfft; and users do just want results. We should be designing search interfaces and systems that make it easier for people to find what they are looking for and not be elitist about wanky ‘search strategies’.