My Library

Advanced Search Help

Connectors
And is automatically added between all words. To search for a phrase use quotation marks. hotels boston
searches every occurrence of both of these words
Or specifies multiple words in any field. fashion or apparel
And not omits specific words. mouse and not computer
   
Adjacency
Word order matters. Words within quotation marks are searched as a phrase. "United States Supreme Court"
   
Truncation
Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk. environment*
searches for environment, environmental, environmentalist
Use a single asterisk * to truncate from 1-5 characters.
Use a double asterisk ** for open-ended truncation. Alex** searches for Alexander, Alexandria, Alexis
   
Proximity
Near searches words close to each other, in any order. California near university
Within # searches words which occur within a certain number of words of each other.
America within 3 econom*
Before and after search words in a particular order. John before Kennedy
Jr. after Kennedy
When proximity operators are contained in the search phrase, use quotation marks around the phrase. "near fatal"
"deep within"
"before midnight"
"after school"
   
Fields
Specify fields to search using field abbreviations:
  • a: (author)
  • t: (title)
  • d: (subject)
  • n: (note--can be used to retrieve titles of stories, poems, and songs in collections)
  • a:Twain
  • a:Twain AND t:Huck**
  • a:United AND a:States AND d:disabilities
  • n:"gift of the magi"