Discover Search Techniques
Search operators are a set of commands that can be used in almost every search engine, database, or online catalogue. The most popular operators are AND, OR, and NOT. These must all be in capital letters to work. Other operators include parentheses, truncation, and phrases.
Below are a few examples from OCLC's Search Guidelines page.
A keyword search provides a single search box to find words and phrases anywhere in the catalogue record or in title, author/creator, or subject fields. For example:
This search... |
returns these titles... |
Keyword: Christian mediation |
-
Christian meditation by Hans Urs von Balthasar
-
The secret of Francis of Assisi : a meditation by Christian Bobin
-
The Oxford book of Christian verse
-
The occult revolution; a Christian meditation. by Richard Woods
|
A phrase search uses quotation marks to allow an exact match to the phrase searched.
This search... |
returns these titles... |
Keyword: "Christian mediation" |
-
Christian meditation by Hans Urs von Balthasar
-
Christian meditation : experiencing the presence of God by James Finlay
-
The other side of silence : a guide to Christian meditation by Morton Kelsey
|
More Examples:
AND |
Use this word between concepts to narrow your results. |
e.g. sensory AND perception |
OR |
Use this word between related concepts. |
e.g. Bible OR Scripture |
NOT |
Use this word to exclude terms from your search. |
e.g. virus NOT corona |
* |
Use the asterisk symbol to include alternate word endings.
|
|
e.g. Christ* will search for Christian, Christianity, and Christendom |
? |
Use a question mark to include variations in spelling in your search. |
e.g. wom?n will search for woman, women |
( ) |
Use brackets to create separate groups of actions in your search. |
e.g. "Christian spirituality" AND (medieval OR "middle ages") AND Europe |
To discover how to use more search techniques (e.g., keywords, Boolean operators, wildcards, etc.) to refine your search results even further, click here: Search Guidelines Online.
For further information, watch this video: Search Techniques in WorldCat Discovery (7:35).
Provided by OCLC