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Searching Help

Keyword search

Type your search terms in the “any word,” title, author, or subject field.

Alphabetic or “browse” search

Click on the “A-Z Index” button to select from an indexed list.

Clear search page

Click the Reset button.

Finding words and phrases

Type this...	To find....
history Vancouver	these two words in any order
“solid waste management”	a phrase with the words in exact order
toxic*	a word stem and any of its variations; e.g. toxicity, toxicology
regional planning ! vancouver	records without a particular word or phrase (the NOT search)
toxic* / health & wastewater green ! leed & building	records with multiple search criteria (string along your queries)

Words joined by the boolean operators for OR or NOT (/, !) are evaluated in left-to-right order. For example, red & white/blue finds items that contain "red" AND "white", OR items that contain "blue". Use parentheses to control evaluation order. For example, red & (white/blue finds index items that contain "red" AND "white" OR "red" AND "blue".

Using the AND-OR-NOT drop-down list

Using the AND-OR-NOT drop-down list in front of each box, you can do more advanced searches. The Boolean operator you select for a box determines how the search criteria in that box will be combined with criteria already evaluated. Boxes are evaluated from top to bottom (first box to last).

Finding a date

To find a date, enter the year in the Date field or use the examples below to search a range of dates.

Doing "less than", "greater than", and "between" searches

You can search for items greater than or less than a certain value, or within a range. This is most commonly done when searching for dates, but can also be done when searching for values or text. Use the symbols shown below. A range consists of two values, low and high, separated by a colon. Include spaces around the colon.

Symbol	Meaning	Example
<	less than (before)	< 2005 finds dates before January 1, 2005
<=	less than or equal to (on or before)	<= 1998
>	greater than (after)	> 2002 finds dates after December 31, 2001
>=	greater than or equal to (on or after)	>= 500 finds values greater than or equal to 500
:	between	1997 : 1998 finds dates from Jan. 1, 1997 through Dec. 31, 1998 (inclusive)

Using the equal sign in a search

To find titles that contain the word “Vancouver” with no other text, type “= Vancouver” in the title field.

To search for terms that begin with a specific word or phrase, precede the word or phrase with an equal sign (=) and put an asterisk at the end of the search string. For example, to find terms that start with com (such as Computer Animation and Commercial Applications), type: =com* or to find terms that start with Computer Graphics, type =computer gr*.

Case and punctuation

Case in query criteria is usually ignored (for example, a search for genie finds Genie). Punctuation is also ignored, except for searching symbols. If you do not want these characters to be interpreted as search symbols, use quotation marks.

Note: For Code fields, punctuation and case are not ignored. Code fields are often used for e-mail fields.

Displaying Records After a Search

Jump to other locations

Click links within a record to display more detail or jump to other pages. For example, click on a title within your search results to see the full display. Once you are in full display, click on a subject heading or author to view other records associated with that heading.

Display additional pages

If available, click the Next and Previous navigation links on the report page.

Troubleshooting

I got the message "Unable to recognize as a correctly formed query"

The program cannot understand the search criteria. Possible problems include:

Typographical error
Mismatched quotes or parentheses
Extra Boolean search symbols
Missing quotation marks around symbols that can be misinterpreted. For example, search for "http://www.inmagic.com".

If you cannot determine what caused the error, try a simpler search (for example, just a word in a box) to see if it works. If the query page includes an “A-Z Index” button, use it to construct the query, instead of typing criteria. If even simple searches do not work, contact the Webmaster for the site.

I found too many records

Try using a more specific search; e.g. “water quality” rather than “water.”
If you used an asterisk, omit it and try an exact search instead (for example, search for computer technology instead of comp*).
Try using a Boolean symbol such as NOT (!) between words to construct more precise queries (e.g., water ! quality).
Use the “Publication Type” search to limit your search by collection, format, etc.

I did not find any records

Examine the contents of the search page (especially if it is very long) to verify that you do not have query criteria left over from a previous search.
If you are not sure of the spelling, use an asterisk after the first few characters (for example, colo*) or separate several possible spellings with a forward slash (for example, search for color / colour).
If you did a complex search, try simplifying it to eliminate confusion. If the query page has Browse buttons, use them to select from a list of indexed choices to search.
If you are trying to find records that contain multiple words anywhere in the record, separate the words with Boolean symbols (/, !). Otherwise, you are automatically doing an “AND” search, which finds the given terms in any order.
If your search includes Boolean symbols (/, !), remember to put spaces around the symbols. Note that this is only necessary if the parameter requiring spaces around operators has been set for your site.