Put quotation marks around terms to be searched as a phrase:
"distance learning"
"gold standard"
Consider using quotes for titles phrases:
"lord jim"
"call of the wild"
The single character truncation (?) and multi-character truncation (*) symbols do not work within quotation marks.
Phrase searching can be done in both Keyword and Keyword Expert searches.
For even more tips for advanced searching, consult these Library guides:
The Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) can be used in Keyword Expert searches, but not any of the basic Keyword searches.
If two or more words are entered without any Boolean operators, they will be searched as if connected with AND.
Operators may be in lower or upper case.
If AND, OR, or NOT are in a search phrase, put the phrase in quotes.
"nickel and dime"
"dazed and confused"
Enclose search terms and operators in parentheses to specify the order in which they are to be interpreted. Information within parentheses is interpreted first, then information outside parentheses is interpreted next.
(life OR death) AND philosoph*
If there are nested parentheses, the inner most parenthetical expressions are interpreted first, then the next, until the full search statement has been interpreted.
((song* OR poem*) AND (life OR death)) AND antholog*
A dash before a word acts as NOT.
cats -dogs
Truncation can be used in Keyword, Keyword Expert, and Advance searches. Do not use in Browse searches.
For multiple character wildcard searches, use * to find 0 or more characters. The * may be used at the end or beginning of a word, as well as within a word.
revolution* will find: revolution, revolutionary, revolutionaries
child* will find: child, child's, children, childhood
*blogging will find: microblogging
*communications will find: telecommunications and communications
con*ion will find: conservation, convention, constitution
In Keyword Expert and Advanced search only, use ? to substitute for a single character:
organi?ation will find: organization and organisation
t?me will find: time and tome
encyclop??dia will find: encyclopaedia and encyclopoedia
revolution??? will find: revolutionary and not revolution, unless both words are in the same record.
The truncation symbol (*) cannot be used on these searches:
