Home | Help contents | Search catalogues help | Help with searching <<
Help with Entering Your SearchClick on a question below for help:
- What is the difference between search type and search term ?
- What should I put in the Search Term boxes ? (single word or keywords or phrases or what ?)
- How can I find items by a particular author ?
- How can I find an item if I only know the title ?
- How can I find an item if I know the author and title ?
- How can I find journals and other periodicals ?
- Can I search for journal articles using InforM25 ?
- What are ‘Identifiers’ ?
- What is the difference between a Subject search and a Keyword Anywhere search ?
- Can I do Boolean searches ?
A full index of help pages is also available.
What is the difference between search "type" and search "term" ?
These can be defined as:
- Search Type (Step 2a.)
- Five different searches are available: Author/Title, Periodical title, Identifier, Subject, Keyword anywhere. To select the type of search you wish to carry out, use the left-hand mouse button on either the 'radio button' or on the text alongside. Selecting a different search type will change the right-hand part of the display for entering your search term.
Note: The default search type is Author/Title. - Search Term (Step 2b.)
- The search term is the actual word or phrase that you are looking for in the selected library catalogues, for example, it could be part of a book title, a journal title or an author's name.
To perform your search, you need to choose the type of search you wish to carry out, AND you need to enter a search term to look for in the selected library catalogues.
Once BOTH the search type and term have been entered, to perform the search use the left-hand mouse key on the 'search catalogues' button in Step 2b. (Pressing the keyboard Return key with the cursor in a search Term entry box will also effect the search process.)
What should I put in the Search Term boxes ?
Some general tips on how to enter queries in the search term boxes include:
- The searching process is case insensitive, thus searches for "NEW SCIENTIST", "New Scientist" and "new scientist" will give exactly the same result.
- Truncation - for some search types (and not all library catalogues) truncation is automatically applied. For example, a search for "garden" may find items containing garden, gardens, gardening, gardener and so on.
Note: Using a 'wildcard' character such as "*" is likely to cause the search to fail. - Please be careful to spell words correctly to get the most from your search. Also be aware of alternative spellings for some words, you may have to try different searches for each alternative.
Additional questions and answers describe the different search types and give examples of how to enter search terms.
How can I find items by a particular author ?
Click on the radio-button to the immediate left of the Author/Title Search Type. Note: By default this search type is already selected when you first view the search page.
The preferred format for entering an author's name is surname, forename; for example, greene, graham or vliet, don van. If you do not know the author's full name, you can enter surname, initial (greene, g) or just the surname (greene).
You can also enter the names of corporate or other institutional authors; for example, institute of historical research. You should omit the preceding definite article; thus you would not enter "the institute of...".
Although a 'Title' box is included, you do not need to enter anything if you are searching for all of the works by a given author.
Once you have entered your search term, press the search catalogues button.
How can I find an item if I only know the title ?
Click on the radio-button to the immediate left of the Author/Title Search Type. Note: By default this search type is already selected when you first view the search page.
Either enter the full title (if known), or just part of the title of the work you are searching for.
When entering your search term, omit any preceding definite or indefinite articles; thus you would NOT enter "an introduction to...", or "the principles of...".
Although an 'Author' box is included, you are not required to enter anything here for your search to be successfully executed.
Once you have entered your search term, press the search catalogues button.
How can I find an item if I know the author and title ?
Click on the radio-button to the immediate left of the Author/Title Search Type. Note: By default this search type is already selected when you first view the search page.
The preferred format for entering an author's name is surname, forename; for example, greene, graham or vliet, don van. If you do not know the author's full name, you can enter surname, initial (greene, g) or just the surname (greene). Also, either enter the full title (if known), or just part of the title of the work you are searching for. The Boolean AND operator will automatically be applied.
You can also enter the names of corporate or other institutional authors; for example, institute of historical research. You should omit the preceding definite article; thus you would not enter "the institute of...". When entering your Title term, omit any preceding definite or indefinite articles; thus you would NOT enter "an introduction to...", or "the principles of...".
Once you have entered your Author and Title search terms, press the search catalogues button.
How can I find journals and other periodicals ?
Click on the radio-button to the immediate left of the Periodical Title Search Type.
When entering your search term, omit the preceding definite article; thus you would not enter "the journal of...".
Once you have entered your term, press the search catalogues button.
The advantage of using this Search Type is that it avoids the retrieval of any books that may share the required periodical's title. (See also the related question on Identifiers.)
Can I search for journal articles using InforM25 ?
No. You will still need to use your own institution's bibliographic databases to identify articles relevant to your needs. Having done so, you may then use InforM25 to locate those M25 Consortium libraries that hold the required volumes or issues. (Most journal records available via this service will include an enumeration and chronology statement of the type "vol.4, 1967-".)
What are ‘Identifiers’ ?
Identifiers are alpha-numeric codes that uniquely identify the vast majority of publications. The most common forms are ISBN (International Standard Book Number) for monographs and ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) for periodicals.
For example, the ISBN 0582294428 identifies the 2nd edition of Barry Coward's "Social change and continuity in early modern england". Note that no spaces are inserted between the digits.
Similarly, the ISSN 0022-4529 identifies the "Journal of Social History". Note that the preferred input format for ISSN's is nnnn-nnnn, where two blocks of four digits are seperated with a hyphen.
As you will realise, if you know the identifier it's a useful shortcut to locating the precise item.
Once you have entered your identifier, press the search catalogues button.
What is the difference between a Subject search and a Keyword Anywhere search ?
There is some evidence that the 'Subject' and 'Keyword Anywhere' search types are often confused by users of the service:
- Subject
- The Subject search can be used to find library items classified under a specific subject term or discipline, such as "lighthouses", "economics", "architecture". Subject searches will find all types of available material so you may see books, journals, videos, Audio CDs in the results. A subject search may also be used to find material about an author, for example, "shakespeare".
The Subject search works best for single word search terms. If necessary, the Boolean function can be used to combine two search terms, (e.g. "civil" AND "aviation" will find material with "civil aviation" as a subject classification). - Keyword Anywhere
- Keyword Anywhere (a general keyword search) can be used to find any material containing the search term. Some examples:
- "bananas" - may find material with the word in the title and material classified under the subject of 'bananas'
- "shakespeare" - may find works written by Shakespeare and also material about the famous author
The Keyword Anywhere search works best for single word search terms. If necessary, the Boolean function can be used to combine two search terms.
Using this search type may produce a large number of results for some searches.
Can I do Boolean searches ?
Yes, Boolean operators are available for the following search types:
- Author/Title - when search terms are entered for both Author and Title the terms are automatically combined with the Boolian "AND" operator
- Periodical Title - No Boolean operators available
- Identifier - No Boolean operators available
- Subject - the Boolean "AND", "OR", "AND NOT" are available
- Keyword Anywhere - the Boolean "AND", "OR", "AND NOT" are available
For the Subject and Keyword Anywhere search types it is possible to construct relatively complex search statements using the Boolean pull-down menu: