Keyword Searching

Our catalog uses Keyword searching (unless you have selected the Browse Search).  

Keyword Searching definitely has some benefits, but you have to know a few rules.

• Unless you are searching for a phrase, place the word "and" in between your search terms (ex. grisham and associate ).  (NOTE:  "And" is a boolean operator.  Click here for more detailed information on other boolean operators that may help out with your search.)
• If you are uncertain of the exact spelling of a word, you can use wildcard or truncation.  A question mark "?" is a wildcard that can be used to replace any character (ex. wom?n searches for woman or women) . 
• A dollar sign "$" is used to truncate words and can be used to replace any number of characters. (ex. nurs$ and exam$ retrieves records with all forms of the word nurse (nurse, nurses, nursing, etc.) and exam (exam, exams, examination, etc.)
• Your initial search results will show the title, author, and publication year.  However, since the General Keyword searches all fields in a record, it is possible that you will not see your search terms in the title or author field.  You can click on the title to see more detailed information about a specific result.  If you would like for your terms to appear in the author or title field, then you can limit your keyword search to a certain index.  Click here for further information on limiting your keyword search to an author, title, subject, etc.

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