There are two search forms - a basic search, used for the majority of searches and an advanced search.
The basic search contains the following elements:
If you have not logged in, the basic search also contains a formats field. If you are logged in, your preferences will be selected.
Title, author and subject searches are AND searches ie the system will look for records containing all of the words in each field. For example, a search for Catherine Cookson in the author field would show only books by Catherine Cookson. Any author whose name is either Catherine or Cookson will not be shown.
The keyword search is an OR search ie it will find books with any of the selected words anywhere in the book title, author or synopsis. For example entering Charles Dickens in the keyword anywhere field would bring up books written by Charles Dickens, books about Dickens or referring to Dickens in the synopsis.
Parts of words can be used as long as they are at the start of a word. For example a search for an author named Wall will find authors named Wall, Walls and Wallace but not Stonewall.
Most searches will be effective using the basic search form. For example, entering the catalogue number in the keyword anywhere field will bring up the book you are looking for. However, you may wish to refine certain attributes of books. In this case, use the advanced search.
The advanced search page is split into two sections.
The first section contains the basic search terms (filled in if you have entered them on the basic search page) as well as additional search terms:
You must complete at least one of these fields.
The second section is a list of filters to help refine the results further. For example, if you don't read braille or large print you can set the formats to Daisy CD and streamed audio only. If you find female voices hard to hear you could set the narrator gender term to male. Some of these filters can be set in your profile in "My account".
The filters are:
Enter as much detail as possible in order to get useful results. Conversely, don't put in too much. For example, if you are looking for a particular author it's best just to put that in and not bother with other information.
If you are not sure how to spell a word, try missing it out and putting other words from the title.
If you are not sure of the exact spelling of an author's surname try the first few letters. For example if you are unsure whether it is Brown (without an e) or Browne (with an e), then try Brown (without an e). This will bring up books from authors with either spelling. Alternatively, try a word from the title and the author's first name.
If you are searching for an author and are using initials e.g. J. K. Rowling or J. S. Bach then you must include a space between the initials. Putting J. S. Bach (J full stop space S full stop space) or J S Bach (J space S space) will get you results but JS Bach or J.S.Bach (J full stop S full stop) will not.
You may occasionally want to override your profile terms for a particular search. For example, if you don't normally like to read long books but want to on one occasion then you can use the advanced search. However if you are not sure how to do this you could simply logout and do a search. This will ignore your profile terms as you will not be logged in.
Once you find the book you can still add it to your basket or get it through the BookStream book club.
There are a few inconsistencies in the data entry for some of the older titles on the database. The most significant instance of this is in music manuscripts where the Opus number is written in a number of ways:
This can make it difficult to search by Opus number. If you are looking for a particular Opus number try both Op # (Op space #) and Op.# (Op full stop #). Alternatively try searching by composer name (in the author field) and a word from the title. As we improve the database, this problem should reduce.
If you are looking for music manuscripts, we recommend you uncheck the other media options such as braille to ensure you get the most relevant results.
If you want to find large print books when you search or browse books, you may need to change your account settings. However, if you have never changed your search preferences then large print books will feature in your search results.
To change your settings:
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