Search Tips

Use " " to search for a phrase.

"electoral reform"

will find the two words electoral and reform together in this order.


Use * to replace zero, one or several letters within or at the end of a word.

encyclop*dia

will find encyclopaedia, encyclopædia, encyclopedia.

segment*

will find segment, segmentation, segmented, segments and so on.


Use ? to replace a single letter.

wom?n

will find woman, women or womyn.


Boolean Operators

Boolean operators are used to combine search words and phrases. Boolean operators must be in CAPITALS.


Use AND to search for all specified words or phrases. AND is used by default if no other operator is indicated.

toomey AND land

gives the same results as:

toomey land

Use OR to search for at least one of the words or phrases.

"young adult" OR youth

Use NOT or - to exclude a word or phrase.

picasso NOT braque

gives the same results as:

picasso -braque

Boolean searches are processed from left to right. Use parentheses ( ) to group similar OR terms together.

touris* AND (christchurch OR otautahi OR canterbury)

Power search options

Use " "~ and a number to indicate proximity. For example, to search for tax and reform that are within 10 words of each other (in any order):

"tax reform"~10

Use "~ at the end of a single word to fuzzy search the word. For example:

tolstoy~

will find alternative spellings Tolstoy, Tolstoj, Tolstoĭ but also words with similar letter combinations, such as Tolson, Rolston and so on. Add a parameter closer to 1 to get more similar words; for example

tolstoy~0.8

will find alternative spellings Tolstoy, Tolstoj, Tolstoĭ.


Use ^ and a number at the end of a word to boost a word or phrase. For example, to boost the term "sonatas":

sonatas^5 bach

Use { TO } to perform range searches. For example, to search for a term that starts with either A, B, or C:

{A TO C}

Use [ TO ] to perform range searches on numerical fields such as the Year:

[2015 TO 2023]