Library Guides: Library Discovery Service: Find Specific Materials

Advanced Search Techniques

WorldCat Discovery supports the use of (AND, OR, NOT). Boolean operators must be capitalized.
Boolean searches can be nested using parentheses — ut:(civil w1 war) and (battlefield w1 command*)

There are three operators for approximate term queries: asterisk(*), and question mark(?) or pound sign(#):
Enter the first three characters of the term (at a minimum) and follow with a wildcard. WorldCat Discovery supports the use of two wildcard characters the pound sign (#) and the question mark (?).

Name	Symbol	Function	Usage	Example
Number sign	#	Wildcard	A minimum of three characters must precede the symbol. Replace one character in a search.	wom#n retrieves woman and women
Question mark	?	Wildcard	A minimum of three characters should precede the symbol. Caution: When less than three characters precede the symbol, the results returned may be incomplete. Replace 0 to 9 unknown characters in a search term. Followed by a number, replace the specified number of unknown characters (?n — question mark followed by a number from 1 to 9).	encyclop?dia retrieves encyclopedia and encyclopaedia res?4tion retrieves respiration, restoration, reservation, etc.
Asterisk	*	Truncation	Enter the first three characters of the term (at a minimum) and follow with an asterisk (). Add to the end of a word to retrieve variant endings. Search returns records with 0 or more characters in place of the truncation symbol. Example of search: securit = securit-y, securit-ies, or securit-ization	connect* retrieves connect, connection, connectivity, etc.

Name

Symbol

Function

Usage

Example

Number sign

Wildcard

wom#n retrieves woman and women

Question mark

Wildcard

A minimum of three characters should precede the symbol.
Caution: When less than three characters precede the symbol, the results returned may be incomplete.
Replace 0 to 9 unknown characters in a search term.
Followed by a number, replace the specified number of unknown characters (?n — question mark followed by a number from 1 to 9).

encyclop?dia retrieves
encyclopedia and encyclopaedia

res?4tion retrieves respiration, restoration, reservation, etc.

Asterisk

Truncation

Enter the first three characters of the term (at a minimum) and follow with an asterisk (*).
Add to the end of a word to retrieve variant endings.
Search returns records with 0 or more characters in place of the truncation symbol.
Example of search: securit* = securit-y, securit-ies, or securit-ization

connect* retrieves connect, connection, connectivity, etc.