When selecting any of the Language, Location, Collection, Sub-Collection or Item material type search options, you can select more than one category in the list by holding down the Ctrl key on your keyboard and clicking other items in the same list (or clicking the first category and then holding down the Shift key and clicking the last item in a list, if they are all next to each other).

Searching using the Anywhere field on the search form allows the user to enter the title, a keyword from the title or the author. Not all words need to be entered but the more search terms that are entered the more specific the search results will be.

The Anywhere is a good option for users who do not have exact information as a combination of keyword, extracts from the title or author names can be entered and yield results.

If you have exact details for author or title you can add them to the Title and Author fields.

Boolean operators are specific words used to combine keywords to improve the chances of finding relevant information.

The most commonly used Boolean operators are AND, OR and NOT.

Boolean Operator	Purpose	Example	Result
AND	combine keywords that reflect different concepts	sickness AND health	Search results will contain both of the terms sickness and health. Using AND decreases the number of results, because each time a keyword is added, the focus of the search is narrowed.
OR	combine keywords that reflect similar concepts	sickness OR illness OR treatment	Search results will contain one, or both, of the terms sickness or illness or treatment. Using OR increases the number of results, because a broader range of keywords is searched.
NOT	exclude a keyword	sickness AND health NOT children	Search results will contain both of the terms sickness and health but only if they do not contain the third term children. Using NOT reduces the number of results by excluding information not required.

 

Using Boolean operators when searching the Library Catalogue (and other data sources) can help with retrieving relevant information results.