Library Searches

Query methodology is Query by Example (QBE)

Only terms specifically sought in the returned query matches need be entered. Query terms are not case or order sensitive.

Use of the wildcard (*)

To search for variations in a word stem use the wildcard symbol * in conjunction with other search terms.

For example:

Type cha* in the Authors field and 1995 in the date field to return references published by Chapman, or Chambers, or Chappill in 1995.
Typing 199* in the Date field in conjunction with a term in any other field will ensure your matches are limited to those references published between 1990 and 1999.

Author search

Use Author search to locate records containing the name of a particular author of a book, book article or journal article. Type the author’s full name or just the last name if you’re not sure of the first name.

For example:

Charles Austin Gardner
or just: Gardner

Title search

Use Title search to locate a specific title of a book, book article, journal or journal article. Enter a few words from the title. They do not have to be in any particular order.

For example:

flowers western australia - will retrieve "flowers and plants of western australia" as well as "flowers of Calytrix fraseri A. Cunn. (Myrtaceae) in Western Australia".

Subject search

Use this search to locate records containing specific controlled vocabulary terms from the CAB thesaurus used by the library. If your search does not return any results think of an alternative term.

For example:

weeds

If your query returns too many records you may narrow your search by combining 2 subject terms.

For example:

To find all records on weeds in Western Australia, enter weeds and western australia in the Subject field. This search will return records that contain both terms.

Date search

You may enter a specific date for example 1999 or 199*. Using the wildcard symbol * in 199* will retrieve all records with a publication date 1990 to 1999.

After performing a search

If your search return too many records you may limit the number of records returned by modifying your search. You limit your search results by combining any number of the query fields.

For example:

Subject search using weeds retrieved 121 matches. Combining with another subject term australia returned 27 matches. Adding 199* in the date field narrows the search further and returned 7 matches.