Quick Search and Advanced Search (including the People, Resources and Author search forms) use the following Boolean operators:
- " "
- Double quotes are used to turn search terms into an exact phrase, and allow you to be very specific. For example, a search for "Lyceum Theatre", will return biographies containing the words Lyceum Theatre together in that order.
- *
- An asterisk can be used as a substitute for one or more characters. It is especially useful when the correct spelling is unknown. For example a people search on M*y will retrieve records for both McAulay and MacAulay. It will also retrieve all names beginning with M and end in a Y e.g. Markey, Meany, Montgomery etc.
- The * is also useful for truncated searches. For example a search on Publish* will retrieve the words publisher, publishers, publishing, published.
- ?
- A question mark can be used as substitute for a single character. For example, a people search on M?Aulay will retrieve the records for McAulay, but not Mac Aulay. Similarly, a people search on R?y will recover entries for both Ray or Roy.
Quick Search and People Search use the following Boolean operators (Note: Boolean operators are case sensitive):
- AND
- Used to link multiple search terms, this is the default Boolean operator when searching. For example, entering either Gibbs AND artist, or, Gibbs artist will retrieve those biographies which contain both Gibbs and artist.
- Similarly, the radio button finds people who have all the elements of cultural heritage, religious influence, or place of occupation you've selected. For example, select Catholic and Lutheran from the religious influences and click the AND button to find people who are both Catholic and Lutheran.
- OR
- Used to search for unlinked terms. For example, entering Gibbs OR artist will return biographies containing either Gibbs or artist.
- Activate the radio button to find people who have any of the elements of cultural heritage, religious influence, or place of occupation you've selected. For example, select Dutch and Chinese from the cultural heritage list and click the OR button to find people who are either Dutch or Chinese.
The Resources Search and Author Search forms utilise the following Boolean operators:
- All
- This is the default setting when searching for titles and authors. Like the Boolean operator AND, 'All' is used to find multiple search terms within a record. For example, a title search for terms Mawson Antarctica will retrieve archives/publications which contain both Mawson and Antarctica in the title if All is selected.
- Any
- 'Any' operates like the Boolean operator OR. For example, a title search for terms Mawson Antarctica will retrieve archives/publications which contain either Mawson or Antarctica in the title if Any is selected.
