Search guide
Searching
The default search is a basic keyword search ie each individual word is searched for anywhere in a page.
To perform a phrase search (words appearing in a particular order) use " " quotation marks around the phrase.
To find multiple word stems such as plurals etc you can use an * asterisk as a wildcard . It will not work at the start of a word. You can also use the wildcard to truncate terms.
You can also use the basic boolean operators and or not. These operators can be used with ( ) brackets to create sets within a search.
Searches are not case-sensitive.
Results are ordered by the prevalance of the search term.
Examples
| Search Term | Type | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Flinders maps | keyword | all pages containing the exact words Flinders and maps |
| "annual report" | phrase | all pages containing the exact phrase |
| map* | wildcard | all pages with words that start accordingly eg map, maps, mapping, maple |
| col*r | wildcard | all pages with words that start and end accordingly eg colour, color, collected, collector |
| "Aust* Directory" | phrase and wildcard | all pages with phrases that start and end accordingly eg Australian Government Directory, Australian Bookshop Directory |
| reports and journals | Boolean and | all pages that include both words |
| reports or journals | Boolean or | all pages that include either word |
| reports not journals | Boolean not | all pages that include report but not journals |
| reports and (journals or serials) | Boolean and, or | all pages with reports and either serials or journals |
| (journals or serials) not report* | Boolean or, not and wildcard | all pages with either journals or serials but not reports |
