When searching POWER LIBRARY, you may find one or more of these search techniques useful.
ADJACENCY (GROUPING)
Enclose multiple words in quotes to search together as a phrase.
Example: “united states supreme court”
TRUNCATION (SHORTENING)
Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk.
Example: environment* polic*
Example: william shakes*
OPERATORS (COMBINATIONS)
Use “and” to narrow your search.
Example: (measles symptoms) and preschoolers
Use “or” to expand the search.
Example: (butterfly garden) or (attracting beneficial insects)
Use “and not” to exclude words.
Example: Washington not George
PUNCTUATION
Most punctuation and special characters are ignored in a search. However, you can modify search terms to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
The * (asterisk), : (colon), = (equal sign), ( (left parenthesis), ) (right parenthesis), and ? (question mark) are used in search formatting, and are not searchable. The & (ampersand) and ‘ (apostrophe) are searchable within a search phrase. All other punctuation characters are automatically stripped.
Example: dogs & cats
Example: O’Keeffe
FIELD LIMITS (SEARCHING BY CATEGORY)
Specify fields to search using either the field pulldown menu or the field abbreviation. Fields available for this database are a: (author), e: (location), l: (school district/public library system), n: (note), s: (subject), and t: (title).
Example: [Author] Rowling
Example: [Subject] Birds
Example: (a:twain) and (t:huck*)
Example: (a:united and a:states) and (s:handicapped or s:disabled)
