Help Searching the Catalogue

Wildcard Searches

To perform a single character wildcard search use the ? symbol. For example, to find text or test you can use the search:

te?t

To perform a multiple character (0 or more) wildcard search use the * symbol. For example, to find test, tests or tester, you can use the search:

test*

You can use the * symbol in the middle of a term. E.g. to find test, tempest, tenet, etc.

te*t

You can also use the ? and * symbols at the start of a term. E.g. to search for test, harvest, forest, etc.

*est

Fuzzy Searches

Use the tilde ~ symbol at the end of a Single word Term. For example to search for a term similar in spelling to "roam" use the fuzzy search:

roam~

This search will find terms like foam and roam.

An additional parameter can specify the required similarity. The value is between 0 and 1, with a value closer to 1 only terms with a higher similarity will be matched. For example:

roam~0.8

The default that is used if the parameter is not given is 0.5.

Proximity Searches

Use the tilde ~ symbol at the end of a Multiple word Term. For example, to search for forest and rock that are within 10 words apart:

"forest rock"~10

Range Searches

To perform a range search you can use the { } characters. For example to search for a term that starts with either A, B, or C:

{A TO C}

The same can be done with numeric fields:

{2006 TO 2008}

Phrase Searches

Enlose a phrase in quotation marks to search for that exact phrase. For example to search for rock in a forest, use:

"rock in a forest"

Boosting a Term

To apply more value to a term, you can use the ^ character. For example, you can try the following search:

rock forest^5

Which will give more value to the term "forest"

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators allow terms to be combined with logic operators. The following operators are allowed: AND, OR, and NOT.

Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS

AND

The AND operator is the default conjuction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. The AND operator matches records where both terms exist anywhere in the field of a record.

To search for records that contain "forest" and "rock" use the query:

forest AND rock

OR

The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching record if either of the terms exist in a record.

To search for documents that contain either "rock" or "forest" use the query:

rock forest

NOT

The NOT operator excludes records that contain the term after NOT.

To search for documents that contain "rock" but not "forest" use the query:

rock NOT forest