The search engine gives you the ability to perform simple searches or to take full advantage of its sophisticated search syntax.

By default the keywords field will accept a list of words separated by spaces as in the example shown below:

This query will show all stories that contain the words congress, economy and policy. The spaces are assumed to be Boolean ands (see section on Boolean Operators), meaning that all terms are required to be in all stories retrieved. This is only a small part of the potential power the Save search engine offers. Features such as Wildcard Characters and Proximity Operators are also available.

Boolean operators such as and, or, not and near can be used anywhere in any type of search. In the list of search types offered, the logic of the boolean connectors is used, but in some cases you do not need to enter the actual connector(s).

All of the Words: This type of search assumes that spaces between words are treated like the logical and, meaning that all of the terms entered are required to be in all of the items found. A search for Congress economy policy would return all stories that contain all three of these  words exactly as they are spelled. See the section on Wild Cards for information on including alternate spellings such as economies or economic.

Any of the Words: This type of search assumes that spaces between words are treated like the logical or, meaning that results may contain just one of the words or possibly all of the words from your query. The search congress economy policy would return all stories containing the word congress or the word economy or the word policy. Keep in mind that this type of search can produce large search results.

Exact Phrase: This mode assumes that the space between words requires that the words be adjacent to each other and in the exact order in which you enter them. Use this type of search if you are sure the exact phrase, such as electronic banking, must occur in the stories you are looking for.

Advanced: This option enables you to take full advantage of search syntax. Instead of having spaces automatically interpreted as logical connectors, you enter the precise operators you want. You may also combine different operators in one search statement. For further explanations of the search syntax, see the sections below on Boolean Operators, Proximity Operators, Field Searching and Wildcard Characters.

Stories Published Within Year / Month: Will find stories published in a particular year or from a period spanning several months. Please note that not all years are available for each of the sources available on NewsLibrary.

Stories Published from <Date 1> to <Date 2>: Any arbitrary date range can be entered here. Enter the month, day, and year of the range of dates to limit your search. These dates are inclusive.

Valid date formats include:

1/31/98   or   1-31-98   or    January 31 1998   or    1/98   or   1998

Examples of date field searches are:

From Newest to Oldest: Will return the found stories in reverse chronological order. Stories that were most recently published will appear at the top of your result list.

From Oldest to Newest: Will return the found stories in chronological order. Stories that were most recently published will appear at the bottom of your result list.

By relevance: Will return the found stories in an order that best matches the search terms you have requested. The more frequently these terms appear in a story, the higher its rank in the result list will be.

This allows you to specify the number of abstracts returned in your result list. The top stories matching your search terms and based on the sort order that you have selected will be listed.

Boolean operators permit you to create more complex queries and can be combined with Wildcards and Proximity Operators. To formulate a more complex query that combines boolean operators, select Advanced as your Search Type on the search form. See the list below for examples.

Proximity operators allow you to specify just how close two words must occur in a story to be included in your results. See the examples below.

Wildcard characters can be used to match a set of possible characters at any point in a word.

Wildcard characters can be used to match a set of possible characters at any point in a word.

Commonly searched text fields are:

Examples of combined field searches: