Help Center: Search Tips

When searching multiple words the system will automatically suppply the Boolean "and" operator between each word; multiple words entered for the search will all occur somewhere in the retrieved records though not necessarily in the order entered. Both examples on the right will retrieve the same results.

Search for complete phrases by enclosing them in quotation marks. Words enclosed in double quotes will appear together in all results exactly as typed.

*   The asterisk ('*') matches up to five non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word. For example, "inter*" will match "internal" and "internet", but will not match "international". The '*' wildcard may only appear after at least two characters.
The '*' wildcard may also be embedded in a search string. For example, "colo*r" would match both "color" and "colour".

?   You may use a question mark ('?') to replace a single character anywhere within a word.

Use AND or OR to specify multiple words in any field, any order. Use AND NOT to exclude words. Select the operator you wish to use from the selection list on the Advanced Search form.

Field limits may be specified by selecting a field limit from the selection list in the form above. These limits appear before the word or phrase to be searched. A field limit causes the system to search only the specified field for the specified word(s).

Author: Search only author fields

Title: Search only title fields

Subject: Search only subject fields

Note: Search only note fields

Subject: Search only subject fields

Keyword search results are usually grouped by relevance to bring the most likely titles to the top of the list. Each group represents a similar level of relevance and results are sorted within the group by date or title. To get an ungrouped result set, use boolean operators to form a complex query.