Detailed searching involves:
Search more precisely by a combination of keywords, title, author and/or subject. Create more complex searches by limiting results by publication date or your date range, material type, and/or language.
Search using Any as a way to broaden your search results
Subject terms can be formed from a combination of topic words, era, country and type of publication:
e.g. motion pictures France
e.g. world war 1914-1918 new zealand songs
e.g. parenting cross-cultural studies
Contains - useful when unsure of the exact title, author or subject heading .. but you may get large sets of results
e.g. for author/creator - Stephen Linder OR Linder Stephen
Is (exact) - useful for very short titles, and authors
e.g. Nature
e.g. for author/creator - Linder Stephen OR Linder, Stephen, AND Stephen Linder - different records use different author word order, so check both or use a Contains search
Starts with - useful when searching longer titles. Not available for subject or author Advanced searches.
Material Type - useful to find specific items:
e.g. Find the journal Pediatrics by limiting to Journals
e.g. Find the DVD God Boy by limiting to Audio Visual
e.g. Find a map of gold mining in Otago by limiting to Maps
e.g. Find a piece of sheet music by limiting to Scores
e.g. Find an Otago thesis by limiting to Theses
Search Scope - limit results to specific Library Collections:
When you have found a relevant item on your topic, look for similar items using its Subjects links.
Choose the Details tab. Scroll down to the Subjects. Click on the most useful subject heading for your topic.
