• To do a boolean search, enter search terms in at least two of the Search Term fields, select an Index type for each search term, select an Operator (AND, OR, NOT), then click on the SEARCH button OR use the shortcut keys ALT+S to start the search. You can also use the ENTER key to start the search providing the cursor is in a Search Term field.
• If there is more than one word entered in the first Search Term field, the system uses an implicit AND between each word. For the other Search Term fields, it depends on whether AND or OR is selected. If OR is selected, then the system treats all words in those Search Term fields with an implicit OR between them. For example, if you wanted to retrieve all records with a Title of computer or software written by an Author of Reynolds you would enter computer in the first Search Term box, select Title as the Index and OR as the Operator on that line; enter software in the second Search Term box, select Title as the Index and AND as the Operator on that line; and enter Reynolds in the third Search Term box and select Author as the Index.
• When the system finds no hits for a boolean search, it goes to the index and trims off the string until it finds the Closest Matches and these are then displayed on the Browse Index screen. This will usually be the Closest Matches for the term in the first Search Term field, even though it may be the term in the second Search Term field that does not in fact have any matches.
• Any of the Search Term fields can be left blank and you do not have to use the first Search Term field. For example, you can just use the 3^rd Search Term field if it has the Search Index displayed that you want to use.

The following Limit by options to filter search results can be enabled on various search screens in the WebOPAC:

• Publication Year: If you wish to restrict the search results to titles published within a specific time period, enter the years in the From and To fields. Either the From field or the To field can be left blank to include records from the beginning, or to the end.
• Material Type: If you wish to restrict the search results to titles of a specific material type (e.g. Book, Video, Compact Disc) select it from the Limit by Material Type dropdown box. The default selection is All Materials. Your library may have also setup that when you select a Material Type, the Limit by Collection field will refresh with only those Collections linked internally to the selected Material Type, or vice-versa.
• Collection: If you wish to restrict the search results to titles belonging to a specific Collection (e.g. Adult Fiction, Adult non-Fiction, Junior Fiction) select it from the Limit by Collection dropdown box. The default selection is All Collections. Your library may have also setup that when you select a Collection, the Limit by Material Type field will refresh with only those Material Types linked internally to the selected Collection, or vice-versa.
• Location: A single Branch or multiple Branches can be selected (via Ctrl+click or Shift+click) if you wish to limit the search to Item holdings CURRENTLY at those particular Branches i.e. the Current Branch on the Item Record. It is NOT based on the Branch that OWNS the Item. Note: To cater for electronic resources and other material where a physical copy may not exist, records with no holdings will also be displayed in a search limited by Location.
• Service Point or Library: This feature is commonly used to libraries who may have libraries within libraries, for example, a Childrens Library or Music Library as part of the main library.
• Special Collections: Your library may have setup special Collections based on specified data within bibliographic records. These will normally be based on criteria that is not normally available via any of the standard Search Indexes.
• Language: If you wish to limit the search by a specified Language, select it from the list of available languages.

With normal searches you need to enter a full word or word/s, e.g. computer and the search will take place on just that term. If however you want to broaden the search you can use any of the following wildcards:

• A question mark (?) can be substituted for one character WITHIN a word. For example, Author search term of Gr??ham would retrieve records containing Grisham, Gresham, Greyham etc as the Author. The ? wildcard is only supported on the Simple Search screen and can only be used in the FIRST word in the search term field and may not apply to all search indexes.
• An asterisk (*) can be substituted for multiple characters WITHIN a word. For example, Title search term of Au*ia would retrieve records containing Australia, Austria, etc. in the Title. Use of the asterisk * character WITHIN a word is only supported on the Simple Search screen and can only be used in the FIRST word in the search term field and may not apply to all search indexes.
• An asterisk (*) can be used for truncation at the END of a word. For example, if you entered comp* as the search term, the search would include all words starting with comp such as computer, computerisation, computers, complete, compilation, etc. If entering multiple words in the search term field, the asterisk * can be used on ONE WORD ONLY but this word can be in any position in the search term field. If you enter multiple asterisks in a search term string, it is likely that no records will be retrieved. It can be used on the Simple Search screen and in the FIRST search term field on the Advanced Search screen.
• Wildcard searching using substitute characters ? or * within a word is NOT supported for the following Search Indexes (which use Bitmap Indexes) :
  • Barcode
  • Classification
  • Call Number
  • ISBN
  • ISSN
  • ISMN
  • UDN

• If your library has activated the Search Index Term facility, a small icon will be displayed beside the BROWSE INDEX buttons for each search term field on the standard Advanced Search screen.
• Clicking on the Search Index Term button will display the index term selection window. This button can be selected without first entering any search terms. The selection window has an Index selection dropdown box, A to Z buttons for accessing keywords in the selected Index that start with the selected letter. There is also a Display From field so that you can enter the first part of the index term, click on the Display button and then only the Index terms from that point onwards will be displayed. If you use the A to Z buttons, all terms commencing with that one character will be displayed. Note that the index terms listed are the keywords that exist in the selected Index, so no phrase entries will be displayed as they do for the Browse Index function. So if, for example, you select the Author index and click on M, the words listed could occur in any part of the Author name (Surname or Given Names).
• Any keyword listed can be selected and it will then be inserted into the Index Terms field. If required, multiple selections can be made from any of the lists. If you then click on the Transfer Terms button, the selected terms will be inserted into the Search Term field on the Advanced Search screen from which the Search Index Term icon was selected. Note that this transfer does not change the Search Index selected on the Advanced Search screen. For example, if Titles is displayed on the Advanced Search screen when you click on the Search Index Term icon, but you then select Authors as the Index on the index term selection window, after you have transferred the terms, the system will not change Titles to Authors.
• The search can either be started after one selection is made, or any of the other search term fields on the Advanced Search screen can be filled in by selecting index terms, or by manually entering search terms. If multiple terms are selected for the one search term field, the system will transfer them separated by a space and use an implicit AND operator between the terms in the same manner as when multiple words are entered manually.

The Preferences option on the main menubar is used to set the preferred sorting order for the Search Results list and also (if activated) set the preferred Service Point/Library for searching.

Sorting Methods: Currently the available sorting methods are:

• Title, Publication
• Publication, Title
• Publication, Author
• Author, Publication
• Descending Publication Year ** see note below
• Shelf Location *** see note below
• Author, Title

When the Preferences option is accessed, the current sort method is displayed. If you wish to change it make a selection from the dropdown box, then click on the Submit button. Once the preferred method is set, it will remain set until changed - it does not revert to the default on login. The Sorting Preference for individual searches can also be selected on the Simple Search and Advanced Search screens, though this does not change the default Sorting Preference. It can also be changed on the Search Results page for an existing search results set.

** When sorting by Descending Publication Year, the records with the SAME Publication Year are sorted by ascending RSN.

*** The sorting by Shelf Location works on the Call Number on the bibliographic record, not the item records. If no Call Number exists on the bibliographic record, these records are displayed first in the hits list.

Service Point/Library: Your library may have Service Points or Libraries setup for their database. These are usually a group of Branches. You may be able to set a preference for the Service Point/Library that is used as the default selection.

There are two types of Search History that can be activated by your library.

1. The first type is accessed via the Search History menu option. It displays the history in a table that includes a count, the number of Hits for that term, the Type of Search that was done (e.g. Simple, Advanced), the Search Index and Term. If activated, there is also the facility to Bookmark the Search History for each entry, add an RSS Feed, or Add to Google. Clicking on an entry will......
2. The other type of Search History is only available from the Advanced Search screen. After you have done a search either on the Simple Search screen or the Advanced Search screen, a small icon will be visible next to each Search Term field on the Advanced Search screen. Click on this icon and the Search History window will popup listing all terms you have used and the search index used with that term. Click on any term listed in the History window and it will then be placed into the search term field from which the Search History button was accessed and the Search Index will change to whatever has been stored with that selected term.

The Search History for both types can be cleared by selecting the Clear Search Sets menu option (which will also clear any other stored Search set, e.g. if the Refine Search option has been used to create another Search set). The history for the Search History accessed from the Advanced Search screen can be cleared by selecting the Clear Search Term History menu option. The history is also be cleared if the timeout feature is invoked.

The Browse Index function, which is accessible from the Simple Search or Advanced Search screens, provides a list of index entries that match the search term entered on those screens. For example, you could enter History as the search term and select Subjects as the Search Index. If you then clicked on the Browse Index button you would see a list of all Subject terms that start with the word History, along with the number of Hits for each of those terms. You could then click on one of the linked Index entries to proceed with the search.

The Browse Index list will automatically display with closest matching terms (where possible) when searches run from the Simple Search or Advanced Search screens do not find any hits.

The Browse Index list shows the indexed term in the Index Field column and depending on the Index selected it may display unnormalised (i.e. exactly as it appears in the record) or normalised (i.e. as it appears in the Index stripped of punctuation, in upper case etc). The Sort Format column (which can be switched on or off by your library) displays the normalised form of the term and is included to show the exact sequencing of the terms in the Index. The number of records for each entry listed is also shown.

The Browse Index option is suppressed on the Simple Search screen for numeric Indexes (such as Call Number, ISBN, ISSN, ISMN and UDN).

NOTE: The Browse Index function works on either FULL or PART words. For example, if you enter Au in the search term box and select Series as the Index, when you select Browse Index you will see all series entries starting with Au. You do not need the asterisk at the end of a part word when browsing the index as the index entries that are displayed are actually the phrase entries, regardless of whether Keyword Searching or Phrase Searching is selected on the search screen. However, when the Index List is displayed and you click on an Index Field entry, the display of records from that point will be dependant on whether Keyword Searching or Phrase Searching was selected on the Search screen before the Index entries were displayed.