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Use a " ? " for Right-hand Truncation
You can use a question mark (?) character to designate one or more unspecified characters at the end of typed text. For example, searching with the keyword "astro?" will find all of the books with keywords that begin with "astro", such as: astronomy, astrophysics, astronomical and so on.The Catalog is NOT Case Sensitive
You may use any combination of upper and/or lower case letters. Records with the word "STAR" and "star" will both be found, even if you enter the characters "sTaR".Use Boolean Searching - "And", "Or", "Not"
Sometimes truncation searching can find TOO many records. An alternate method is to use Boolean Searching with the reserved words of "and", "or" and "not".
To find records containing BOTH the words "star" and "dwarf", enter "star AND dwarf" as your keyword search. You will find ONLY results that contain both keywords, such as the book "Star-forming Dwarf Galaxies and Related Objects".
To find records that contain EITHER "star" or "stellar" (but not necessarily both), enter "star OR stellar" as your keyword search. This is a great way to expand a search.
If you want to exclude certain terms to narrow your results, try using "not", such as "Gemini NOT constellation".Try Searching by Title or Author
Searching by Keyword is very powerful but can result in an unwanted number of 'bad hits'. If you know specifically which book or author you are looking for, searching by Title or Author is usually a quicker choice.
Unlike keyword searching, Boolean operators DO NOT WORK when searching by Title, Author, or Subject. HOWEVER, right-hand truncation is automatically turned on, which means that the search term "Twain M" will get results for "Twain Mark" too.A Warning about Subject Searching
Our catalog has not maintained a consistent authority list over the years, so it can be difficult to successfully use subject searching. Using keyword searching instead is recommended since all of the words in the subject index also appear in the keyword index.Moving Records to the Briefcase
Adding a copy of the record to your briefcase can be done by clicking on the "Add to Briefcase" link. This is done to build a personal collection of records for later use, or for downloading into a local system in a MARC (MAchine Readable Catalog) format.Additional Questions?
Contact the librarian by sending an email to library@noao.edu©Copyright 2000 - CASPR Library Systems, Inc.