Search Tips

Are you getting too many results with your search? To better refine your search in our catalog, use the "Power Search" option on the catalog web page. This option allows you to narrow your search by author, title, genre and more.

Develop Strategies for Searching

Use quotes around phrases

"parenting styles"   
"Nobel Peace Prize"

Use AND to narrow a search and combine different ideas

caffeine AND hypertension
"sharia law" AND Taliban
"father's parenting styles" AND "self esteem"

Use NOT to narrow a search by removing unwanted terms

Taliban NOT ISIS
"high school" NOT college
caffeine NOT cola

Use OR to widen a search -- OR gives you mORe

girls OR women
school OR education
"sharia law" OR "Islamic law"
holiday* OR celebration*

Use Truncation – returns all forms of a root word - the * cuts off a suffix or ending that might change with spelling
Add an asterisk (shift 8) to the end of the word

cultur* returns  culture, cultures, cultural, culturally
music*  returns music, musician, musicians, musical, musically musicals