Simple search

To do simple keyword search, you can enter one or more query terms (keywords). The search engine returns documents that contain all of those keywords or variations of the keywords.

For example, if you enter king, the search engine returns all documents that contain the word king or kings. If you enter the query king lear, the search engine returns documents that contain the terms king and lear.

To see more precise results, use more specific keywords. For example, use French roast coffee rather than coffee. Or use Kauai hiking tours rather than Hawaiian vacations.

If a simple keyword search returns too many documents that are not what you are looking for, you can use operators to refine your search.

Excluding terms

Use the minus sign (-) to exclude terms. For example, if you want to find documents with the term lear and you do not want to see documents with edward, enter the query lear -edward.

The minus sign (-) also applies to a term and its variants. For example, the query -edward will exclude documents that contain the word edward's

Phrase search

If you want to ensure that terms appear exactly in the sequence in which you typed them, you can use double quotation marks. For example, if you want to see documents with the term king lear exactly as the query and you do not want matches on related phrases such as kingly lear or king and queen lear, enter "king lear". Note that the search is still case-insensitive, but term variants are not considered matches.

Wildcard character

The wildcard character (*) helps you find documents when you do not know the full spelling, or if you want to find variations of the term. For example, the query czech* returns documents with the terms czech, czechoslovakia, czechoslovakian, czech republic, and other possible results.

You can also use the wildcard character in a phrase search. For example, the query "John * Kennedy" returns documents with the terms John Fitzgerald Kennedy and John F Kennedy, but not John Kennedy. Or the query Mi*l Gorbachev will return Mikhail Gorbachev.

Adding a wildcard character to the beginning of a query (for example, *zech) might cause the search engine to take longer to return results.

Metadata search

Requiring that at least one of the terms appears

The operator OR specifies that at least one of the terms in a query must appear in the returned document. For example, the query (othello OR otello) returns documents that contain the term othello or otello.

You can also use the boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT in combinations by using parentheses. For example, the query cougar OR (jaguar AND NOT car) returns documents with the terms cougar or jaguar but not car.

The AND, OR, and NOT operators must be entered in capital letters. Use parentheses for grouping.