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E-resources

Phrase Searching

COBISS+ allows for phrase searching with the use of " ".

The query:

"teacher education"

will find results with that phrase.

The single search box will search across many fields automatically. For example, entering an ISBN or ISSN will bring back associated records.

You can explicitly search a field using the syntax: field:(query).

For example, the search:

ISSN:(1234-5678)

finds records that contain that value in the ISSN field.

Searchable fields:

COBISS+ offers the following Boolean operations: AND, OR and NOT. The operators must be written in ALL CAPS.

By default, all terms in a search are combined with the AND operator. To expand the results set, use the OR operator.

For example:

microcircuits OR nanocircuits

will return items that contain either term.

This can be combined with quoted terms such as:

"teacher education" OR "educator training"

To exclude items in Summon™, use the NOT operator or - character before a term.

When used in the following query:

animal NOT dog

the results will not include the term dog.

Searches within COBISS+ can be performed using the wildcards ? and *.

The question mark (?) will match any one character and can be used to find Olsen or Olson by searching for

Ols?n

The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word.

A search for:

Ch*ter

would match Charter, Character and Chapter.

When used at the end of a word, such as:

Temp*

it will match all suffixes Temptation, Temple and Temporary.

Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search.