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BONUS+ searching tips

This page will provide you with tips and definitions that will help you to search the catalogue.

Boolean searching

• When conducting a Boolean search you are able to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, and NOT (otherwise known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search.
• When searching multiple words in the BONUS+ catalogue, the system will automatically supply the Boolean "and" operator between each word.
• Multiple words entered for the search will all occur somewhere in the retrieved records, though not necessarily in the order entered.

Phrase searching

A phrase search produces results for words entered side by side.

• You will need to enclose the words, in quotation marks.
• Words enclosed in double quotes will appear together in all results exactly as typed. For example, "economic development in Australia"

Wildcards - using *

• The asterisk ('*') matches up to five non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word.
• For example, "inter*" will match "internal" and "internet", but will not match "international".
• The '*' wildcard may only appear after at least two characters.
• The '*' wildcard may also be embedded in a search string. For example, "colo*r" would match both "color" and "colour".
• ** Matches any number of non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word. For example, "inter**" will match all words that begin with "inter" (e.g., "internal", "internet", "international", etc.).
• You may also use a question mark ('?') to replace a single character anywhere within a word. wom?n

Field limits - author, title, subject, note

Field limits may be selected from the list in the form before the word or phrase to be searched. A field limit causes the system to search only the specified field for the specified word(s).

Field limit meaning:
Author: Search only author fields
Title: Search only title fields
Subject: Search only subject fields
Note: Search only note fields