Search guidelines

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Discover how to use search techniques (e.g., keywords, Boolean operators, wildcards, etc.) to refine your search results in WorldCat.org.

Several techniques are available for searching. To get the best results, use advanced search. See below for detailed descriptions.

Keyword search

A keyword search uses one or more complete words that are contained anywhere in the item's record, including: titles, notes, abstracts, summaries, descriptions, and subjects.

Keywords can also be names of people and places that are the subjects of a library resource or a listing in a directory.

You can enter words in upper or lower case, and if you use multiple words you can enter them in any order.

Example:

this search...	returns these titles...
Keyword: blood chemistry	Abnormal blood chemistry values in Hodgkin's disease Chemistry of blood type Early blood chemistry in Britain and France General clinical chemistry — Blood loss from laboratory tests

Your search results can contain a range of items related to your search keyword(s):

words from the title
words that describe the subject matter
the author's name
the item's format and/or language
year of publication
name(s) or publishers and/or distributors of the item
if the item is an article, the name of the magazine or journal in which the article appeared
for recorded music and movies: artist, actor, or director name

Phrase search

A phrase search uses quotation marks to allow an exact match to the phrase searched.

this search...	returns these titles...
Keyword: "blood chemistry"	Abnormal blood chemistry values in Hodgkin's disease Blood chemistry tutorials Early blood chemistry in Britain and France Study in post-operative blood chemistry

Although these examples show titles, your search results can contain the same range of items described for Keywords above.

Boolean operators

Boolean operators allow you to group, include, or exclude certain terms in your search. You can use these operators:

operator	description	a search for...	will return results...
AND (uppercase), or the plus sign +	This is the default search operator. WorldCat searching uses the word "AND" or the plus sign to find all of the words typed in the search box. Note: Any search for terms without an operator will return items with all the words	guns germs steel guns AND germs AND steel guns + germs + steel	with all of the words entered in the search box: guns, germs, steel
OR (uppercase), or the \| symbol	The use of the word "OR", or the \| symbol, will search for either of the words listed in the search box.	Paris OR fashion Paris \| fashion	for any of the words entered in the search box: Paris OR fashion
NOT (uppercase), or the minus sign -	The word "NOT" or the minus sign will exclude terms from your search.	Paris - fashion Paris NOT fashion	for Paris but not fashion
quotation marks " "	To search for an exact phrase, the search terms should be enclosed in quotation marks.	“The Grapes of Wrath”	where all words are located directly next to each other in the search results
parentheses ( )	Use parentheses to create more precise searches.	dog (walking or feeding or grooming)	dog walking dog feeding dog grooming

Common word exclusion

Before a search is sent to the search engine, any words from the common word list (below) will be excluded. Any words in the search that start with the character ‘+’ (and) or ‘-‘ (not) will not be excluded.

The following is the current list of common words to be excluded:

language	excluded words
English	a an and are as at be but by for from had have he her his how in is it not of on or that the this to was which with you
French	de la le les des un une
German	der das dass du er sie es wer wie mit am im in aus auf ist sein wird ihr ihre ihres als von mit dich dir mich mir mein sein kein wird

Wildcards

Wildcards are special characters used to represent additional characters in a search term. They are useful when you are unsure of spelling, when there are alternate spellings, or when you only know part of a term. You can use these two wildcards:

Pound sign (#) – The pound sign, also called a number sign or hash mark, represents a single character.

Examples:

this search...	returns items whose record contains...
wom#n	woman women
adverti#e	advertise advertize

Question mark (?) – The question mark represents any number of additional characters. Include a number if you know the maximum number of characters the wildcard will replace.

Examples:

this search...	returns items whose record contains...
anders?n	anderson andersen
bu?2ler	burner butler

Truncation

Truncation allows you to search for a term and its variations by entering a minimum of the first three letters of the term followed by a question mark symbol (?) or an asterisk (*).

Examples:

this search...	returns items whose record contains...
securit*	security securities securitization
invest*	investor invested investing investiture investment