Search Tips.

The simplest way to search the library catalogue is to enter one or more words that you wish each record searched for to contain.  Separate each word with a space. Only those records containing each word you enter will be displayed. For example, entering the word War followed by the word Peace will show all records containing the word War and the word Peace.

The same result can be obtained by using the Boolean operator AND between each record.   Boolean operators are words such as AND, OR, and NOT that are used to combine search terms, to broaden or narrow the results of a search.  The default Boolean operator for the catalogue is AND, which means if your keywords are separated by a space, AND is automatically used. 

If you wish the records to contain any of the words you enter, separate the words with the Boolean operator OR.  For example War OR Peace will display all records that contain the word War as well as all records that contain the word Peace.

If you wish to search for a part of a word, use an asterisk to denote the part of the word that has not been entered. For example entering Aust* will return records containing words starting with Aust.

If you wish to exclude a word or phrase from your search, use the Boolean operator NOT.  For example, War NOT Peace will return records contain the word War provided they do not contain the word Peace.

If you wish to search for a particular phrase, include it in double quotes. For example, entering "War and Peace" will return only those records that contain the phrase War and Peace. When enclosed anywhere in double quotes, the Boolean operator is treated as a regular word, and not a Boolean operator.

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