Help with Searching

See also Help with Multimedia

Search for words or phrases:

• Single Term -- Enter single term into the search box and press [search].
  -- retrieves items containing the single term
• Multiple Terms -- Enter multiple words into the search box and press [search].
  -- retrieves items containing both words (like Boolean AND operator)
• Multiple Terms in Exact Order (Phrase) -- Place quotation marks around the words (in exact order) and press [search].
  For example: to search for United States --> enter "united states"
  -- retrieves items containing both words in exact order

Use wildcards:

If you are unsure about the exact spelling of a search term, or wish to expand your search to retrieve multiple terms, use wildcard characters.

• Single Character Wildcard -- Replace a single letter within a term with the question mark (?) For example: to search for text or test --> enter te?t .
  -- retrieves items matching the term, where the ? can be any character.
• Multiple Character Wildcard -- Replace a multiple letters within a term with a asterisk (*) For example: to search for music, musical or musicals --> enter music*
  -- retrieves items that match the original term with 0 or more characters where the asterisk was placed.

Please Note: do not use the asterisk (*) or question mark (?) symbol as the first character of a search term.

Boolean AND (+) and NOT (-):

You can use + (plus) or - (minus) symbols to indicate whether a term should, or should not, be retrieved.

• + (plus) -- retrieves items containing the terms.
  +cats + dogs will retrieve items with the both the words cats and dogs
• - (minus) -- does not retrieve items containing the terms
  +cats -dogs will retrieve items with the word cats, but not dogs

Need More Help?

If you'd like more help with searching or have other questions about the items in these collections, we recommend you Ask a Librarian.