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In simple search, several search words are automatically connected with 'and'. For a more focused search, it is advisable to connect several search words using the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT.

AND: All the search words must be part of the document.

OR: Only one of the search words entered must be part of the document. This function expands the search area and is recommended when there are several terms for one subject.

Example: Lorry OR truck

NOT: This function has an exclusive effect and can be used to narrow down the number of hits: documents that contain one of the search words may not contain the other.

Example: Lorry NOT truck

The Boolean operators also work for advanced search. Here they can be used to combine different search words within one search field. For example, the following search for all documents of the author 'Mustermann' from 2002 up to and including 2003:

Example: Author: Mustermann
Year: 2002 OR 2003

Wildcards

If you are unsure how a search term is spelled or if you want to expand your search, you can use * and ? as wildcards.

* replaces any number of characters, ? replaces one.

Example: 'Lib*' finds 'librarian', 'library' as well as 'liberal'.
'Ma?er' finds 'Mayer' and 'Maier' as well as 'Mager' and 'Maler'.

You can use double quotation marks (") to carry out a phrase search.

Browsing

The publications are sorted into categories. For instance, you can have the latest documents, publications of a department or the documents in a series of publications displayed.

The possible categories are:

  • Institutes
  • Document types (e.g. essays, monographs)
  • Series
  • Collections (e.g. as part of DFG Alliance or national licences)
  • Subject classifications