The Keyword Search option in the Titles domain offers an entirely different way of searching the OLIB database for bibliographic data. It employs ’intelligent searching’ techniques such as fuzzy matching and relevance ranking to maximise record retrieval.
To run a simple keyword search:
The keyword search is a powerful tool with a number of advantages:
The Boolean search operators AND, OR and NOT can be used. These are not case sensitive and can also be entered as symbols:
Operator Symbols
AND and &
OR or |
NOT not ~
For example, a search which identifies all items matching the word moth(s) but excluding those which also include butterfly(ies):
moths not butterflies -
A Complete guide to british moths [macrolepidoptera]
The Black moth
Gipsy moth circles the world
The Moth
Moths in the memory
It is possible to nest search terms together to combine the various different boolean operators. The use of brackets acts like a mathematical equation in that the combinations within the brackets are calculated first and then linked to each other.
For example to search for all items about butterflies or moths except those by authors Evans or Heyer:
(moths or butterflies) not (evans or heyer)
Phrases can be included in searches. OLIB will only find those items which include the phrase specified. Phrases are included in double quotation marks (").
The search may be for a single phrase, e.g.
“human resources”
or phrases may be combined, e.g.
“human resources” or “personnel management”
It is possible to search for terms which occur within a defined number of words of another term. So, for example
provision for under-fives
provision for the under-fives
can both be retrieved accurately with one search:
provision(2)under