General Searching Hints

Basic hints

• After entering search term(s), you may click the search button or press the enter key
• Use upper or lower case letters
• Punctuation does not need to be entered; apostrophes are ignored (search O'Malley or OMalley)
• Be aware that spellings vary, e.g., labour/labor; theatre/theater
• Backspace to type over typographical errors
• Truncation is automatic except in the WORDS search option
• Read the choice of actions offered through search buttons; choices vary depending on where you are in your search
• Clicking the back button returns you to the previous screen
• If you find a good item on your subject, you can browse for similar items by clicking on an underlined subject heading in the full record

"A" "and" & "the" in searching

• English language articles ("a", "an", "the") are disregarded by the system. For example, "The New Yorker" is searched as "New Yorker"
• When "a", "an", and "the" are not used as initial articles, but appear at the begining of the title, repeat the initial letters. For example, to search the title A E Housman, type in an extra "a" before the title ("A A E Housman")
• Ampersands (&) may be searched as & or the word "and"
• For all other languages, do not include initial articles as part of the search