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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <meta name="Generator" content="VuFind 9.1.2"> <title>Help</title> <link href="/themes/bootstrap3/css/help.css?_=1667908363" media="screen" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> </head> <body> <h1>Helpful Searching Tips</h1> <ul class="HelpMenu"> <li><a href="#wildcard_searches">Wildcard Searches</a></li> <li><a href="#fuzzy_searches">Fuzzy Searches</a></li> <li><a href="#proximity_searches">Proximity Searches</a></li> <li><a href="#range_searches">Range Searches</a></li> <li><a href="#boosting_a_term">Boosting a Term</a></li> <li><a href="#boolean_operators">Boolean Operators</a> <ul> <li><a href="#boolean_and">AND</a></li> <li><a href="#boolean_plus">+</a></li> <li><a href="#boolean_or">OR</a></li> <li><a href="#boolean_not">NOT</a></li> <li><a href="#boolean_minus">-</a></li> </ul> </li> </ul> <dl class="Content"> <dt><a id="wildcard_searches"></a>Wildcard Searches</dt> <dd> <p>To perform a single character wildcard search use the <strong>?</strong> symbol.</p> <p>For example, to search for "woman" or "women" you can use the search:</p> <pre class="code">wom?n</pre> <p>To perform a multiple character, 0 or more, wildcard search use the <strong>*</strong> symbol.</p> <p>For example, to search for test, tests or tester, you can use the search: </p> <pre class="code">test*</pre> <p>You can also use the wildcard searches in the middle of a term.</p> <pre class="code">te*t</pre> <p>Note: You cannot use a * or ? symbol as the first character of a search.</p> </dd> <dt><a id="fuzzy_searches"></a>Fuzzy Searches</dt> <dd> <p>Use the tilde <strong>~</strong> symbol at the end of a <strong>Single</strong> word Term. For example, to search for variant spellings of "Tchaikovsky," use the fuzzy search: </p> <pre class="code">Tchaikovsky~</pre> <p>An additional parameter can specify the required similarity. The value is between 0 and 1, with a value closer to 1 only terms with a higher similarity will be matched. For example:</p> <pre class="code">Tchaikovsky~0.8</pre> <p>The default that is used if the parameter is not given is 0.5.</p> </dd> <dt><a id="proximity_searches"></a>Proximity Searches</dt> <dd> <p> Use the tilde <strong>~</strong> symbol at the end of a <strong>Multiple</strong> word Term. For example, to search for economics and keynes that are within 10 words apart: </p> <pre class="code">"economics Keynes"~10</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="range_searches"></a>Range Searches</dt> <dd> <p> To perform a range search you can use the <strong>{ }</strong> characters. For example to search for a term that starts with either A, B, or C: </p> <pre class="code">{A TO C}</pre> <p> The same can be done with numeric fields such as the Year: </p> <pre class="code">[2002 TO 2003]</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="boosting_a_term"></a>Boosting a Term</dt> <dd> <p> To apply more value to a term, you can use the <strong>^</strong> character. For example, you can try the following search: </p> <pre class="code">economics Keynes^5</pre> <p>Which will give more value to the term "Keynes"</p> </dd> <dt><a id="boolean_operators"></a>Boolean Operators</dt> <dd> <p> Boolean operators allow terms to be combined with logic operators. The following operators are allowed: <strong>AND</strong>, <strong>+</strong>, <strong>OR</strong>, <strong>NOT</strong> and <strong>-</strong>. </p> <p>Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS</p> <dl> <dt><a id="boolean_and"></a>AND</dt> <dd> <p>The <strong>AND</strong> operator is the default conjunction operator. This means that if there is no Boolean operator between two terms, the AND operator is used. The AND operator matches records where both terms exist anywhere in the field of a record.</p> <p>To search for records that contain "economics" and "Keynes" use the query: </p> <pre class="code">economics Keynes</pre> <p>or</p> <pre class="code">economics AND Keynes</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="boolean_plus"></a>+</dt> <dd> <p>The "+" or required operator requires that the term after the "+" symbol exist somewhere in the field of a record.</p> <p>To search for records that must contain "economics" and may contain "Keynes" use the query:</p> <pre class="code">+economics Keynes</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="boolean_or"></a>OR</dt> <dd> <p>The OR operator links two terms and finds a matching record if either of the terms exist in a record.</p> <p>To search for documents that contain either "economics Keynes" or just "Keynes" use the query:</p> <pre class="code">"economics Keynes" OR Keynes</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="boolean_not"></a>NOT</dt> <dd> <p>The NOT operator excludes records that contain the term after NOT.</p> <p>To search for documents that contain "economics" but not "Keynes" use the query: </p> <pre class="code">economics NOT Keynes</pre> <p>Note: The NOT operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:</p> <pre class="code">NOT economics</pre> </dd> <dt><a id="boolean_minus"></a>-</dt> <dd> <p>The <strong>-</strong> or prohibit operator excludes documents that contain the term after the "-" symbol.</p> <p>To search for documents that contain "economics" but not "Keynes" use the query: </p> <pre class="code">economics -Keynes</pre> </dd> </dl> </dd> </dl> </body> </html>