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Search Tips

  • Phrase searching with the use of “ ” is possible. For example, the query “teacher education” will find results with that exact phrase, while searching for teacher education will return results that mention the words teacher and education, even when they are not in that order or even adjacent.
  • By default, the search box will search across many fields. For example, entering an ISBN or Call Number will bring back associated records.
  • You can limit a search to one field by using the syntax: “field:(query).” For example, the search ISSN:(1234-5678), finds records that contain that value only  in the ISSN field.

    Searchable fields are Title, SubjectTerms, Author, Publisher, PublicationTitle, Volume, Issue, Language, Notes, ISBN, ISSN, DOI, and DEWEY The following Boolean operations are valid: OR, NOT and AND. The operators must be written in ALL CAPS.

    • By default, all terms in a search are combined with the AND operator. To expand the results set, use the OR operator “microcircuits OR nanocircuits” will return items that contain either term.
    • This can be combined with quoted terms such as “teacher education” OR “educator training”.
    • To exclude items, use the NOT operator or “-” character before a term. When used in the following query “animal NOT dog” the results will not include the term “dog”.
  • Searches can be performed using the wildcards “?” and “*”.
    • The question mark (?) will match any one character and can be used to find “Olsen” or “Olson” by searching for “Ols?n”.
    • The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word. A search for “Ch*ter” would match “Charter”, “Character”, and “Chapter”. When used at the end of a word, such as “Temp*”, it will match all suffixes “Temptation”, “Temple” and “Temporary”.
    • Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search.

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