Search Tips

When searching in either the Library Catalogue or the Combined Search, there are some symbols one can employ to get specific results. The table below shows some common search functions one may wish to use.

?: Wildcard: Replace a letter to return searches for multiple spellings. E.g. ‘organi?e’ will return results for ‘organise’ and ‘organize’ YES no
“ ”: Exact Match: If you have multiple words in your search term, putting it in quotation marks will return only results for the exact phrase. no YES
*: Truncation: Adding an asterisk to the end of a string of letters will search for anything that starts with those letters. E.g. ‘trans*’ will return results for ‘transport,’ ‘transcendent,’ and ‘transubstantiation.’ YES YES
Boolean Operators: AND, OR, and NOT can be used to refine search terms as described in the Advanced Search guide. YES *in Advanced Search only* YES

Other useful search functions can be found in the Advanced Search and Filter menus of each of these search types.

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