FAQ
Search tips
Boolean Operators AND, OR, NOT
For Simple Searches with multiple terms, AND is automatically implied between the words. For more targeted searches, we recommend using specific Boolean operators to link search words.
AND: All search words must appear in the document.
OR: Only one of the search words must appear in the document. This expands the scope of the search and is helpful when different words exist to describe the same topic.
courgette OR zucchini
NOT: This function is used to restrict the number of hits. The term appearing after NOT may not appear in any of the documents that contain the preceding term.
Zucchini NOT courgette
Boolean operators can also be used for expanded searches, combining various terms within a single search. For instance, the following query searches for all documents by authors named “John Smith” published in 2002 or 2003:
Author: John Smith
Jahr: 2002 OR 2003
Placeholder
If you are not certain how to spell a search term (a name, say), or if you want to expand a search, use the placeholders * or ? Also known as wildcards, these may not be used at the beginning of a search term:
exampel 1: "Biblio*" will search for "Bibliothekar", "Bibliothek" and "bibliothekarisch".
exampel 2: "Ma?er" will search for "Mayer", "Maier" and "Mager" und "Maler". Quotation marks (“ ”) can be used to search for an entire phrase.
