Expert search tips

(*) = these aspects can also be searched in the advanced search tool.

Search terms can be truncated with an asterisk (*) to the right of the word, but not to the left.

E.g.: au:(goeth*)

Words can also be truncated in the middle with *, whereby the asterisk can represent any number of characters. This format can often be helpful if there are multiple spellings or languages involved. However, it often returns an unexpectedly high number of hits.

For example, when searching for Toskana or Toscana as ti:(tos*ana)

If you want to truncate just one letter, performing the search with a question mark (?) will usually generate more accurate results than when truncating the word in the middle:

E.g.: ti:(tos?ana)

E.g.: au:(ma?er AND w*) AND ti:psychiatrie

The Boolean operators “AND”, “OR” and “AND NOT” can be used in searches. Please note that they must be capitalised.

When several search terms are entered, they are automatically connected with an “AND”. 

However, the “AND” operator must be typed in when terms are truncated or when a field label is used (see below).

The “OR” operator can be used to expand the search, and “AND NOT” is used to narrow it. 

Examples:

Korfu OR corfu

si:frei132\:z22 AND ti:(badische heimat)

ti:unix OR ti:tcp AND NOT ti:linux

• AND
  “A AND B” means every title searched must contain search term A and search term B. So it limits the number of hits. The more terms you connect with AND, the lower the number of hits.
  E.g.: ti:(rhein AND kaiserstuhl) si:frei132\:z22 AND ti:(badische heimat)
• OR
  “A OR B” means every title searched must contain either search term A or search term B or both search terms. The more terms you connect with OR, the higher the number of hits. Searching with OR is a great tool for searching with synonyms or with a search term in multiple languages.
  E.g.: ti:(lexikon OR lexicon)
• AND NOT
  “A AND NOT B” means that every title searched must contain search term A but not search term B. This operator narrows down your number of hits.
  E.g.: ti:(astro* AND NOT astrolo*)
  This search request would return hits for astronomy (as well as Astronomie) and astrophysics, but not astrology (or Astrologie).

When cataloguing, some titles will be assigned field codes or genre terms so that particular titles can be searched using purely formal aspects.

The field codes can be used with the
  tz:
search aspect in the expert search.

The genre terms can be used with the
  term_genre:
search aspect in the expert search.

Language codes have been standardised. When performing a search, use the abbreviated form in the right-hand column.