Fuzzy Searches

Use a tilde at the end of a single word term to search for terms similar in spelling.

• roam~ will find terms like road, room, and foam.
• To specify the required similarity, add a value between 0 (less similar) and 1 (more similar). The default that is used if the parameter is not given is 0.5. For example, roam~0.8 will only find terms like roams and roaming.

Proximity Searches

Use a tilde at the end of a multiple word term to search for terms which are certain distance apart.

• “economics Keynes”~10 will return results for economics and Keynes that are within 10 words apart
• Double quotes do not trigger a phrased search in proximity searches.

Range Searches

Use special characters to perform a range search.

• {A TO C} will return results that have terms that begin with A, B, or C. These terms could come from the title, author, or other fields.
• [2011 TO 2012] will return results which include 2011 and 2012. These terms could cme from the publication date, title, or other fields.

Boosting a Term

To apply more weight to a term, you can use the ^ character.

• economics Keynes^5 will give more value to the term “Keynes”.

Too much? Try our guide to Searching in Books & More!