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

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.

• Phrase Searching (or Starting with searching) is an alternative to the usual Keyword searching and is applicable to Titles, Author, Series and Subject searches only. The phrase entered must result in an exact match, or you must have an asterisk * at the END of the search term (you cannot enter just an asterisk* as the search term).
• Click on the Enable Phrase Searching checkbox to switch from Keyword to Phrase searching (the label and checkbox will be disabled for any Search Index that does not support Phrase Searching). As Phrase Searching is an optional feature, if the Enable Phrase Searching field is not visible, it means your library has switched it off.
• Example: If you do a normal keyword Title search with a search term of Computer software all records with the words Computer AND Software in the Title will be retrieved and may result in say 20 hits. If you Enable Phrase Searching and use the same search term of Computer software, only records with an exact Title of Computer software will be retrieved, which may result in, for example, 5 hits. Phrase Searching will normally produce a smaller list of hits than Keyword searching.

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.

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.

• Search: Alt+1
• Browse Index: Alt+2
• Clear Screen: Alt+3
• Smart Browse (if enabled): Alt+4
• Top of Page: Alt+0
• Page menu: Alt+8
• Page content: Alt+9

Note: These Shortcuts may not work in all Browsers. In the Firefox browser, for the last three shortcuts listed above you need to use Alt+Shift.