Basics

Phrases

Search for phrases by enclosing the phrase in quotation marks.

Example: "Mickey Mouse"
 

Use upper case letters for proper names; otherwise, use lower case for all words. 

Example: "Donald Duck" This search will retrieve all documents with "Donald Duck," but not "donald duck." 
 

Using keywords, the search engine will find documents that contain any or all the keywords you type. If you retrieve too many irrelevant pages, try typing a "+" before terms that you want to include in all documents or pages retrieved. 

Example: +"Mickey Mouse" Pluto This search will retrieve all documents containing the words "Mickey Mouse," but no documents that contain only "Pluto." Documents containing "Pluto" must also contain "Mickey Mouse" to be retrieved.
 

Following a keyword with an asterisk (*) will allow you to search for the keyword and various suffixes. You must type at least three letters of the keyword before using an "*." 

Example: environment* will find documents that contain the words environment, environments, environmental, and environmentalist. 

Using an "*" within a keyword also will allow you to search for variant spellings of the keyword. 

Example: colo*r, will retrieve documents that contain "color" or "colour."
 

Using the word "NOT" or a "-" before a keyword will exclude any document containing that term. Use this feature with extreme care because it can cause valuable documents to be eliminated.

Example: beer NOT "root beer" will retrieve all documents containing the word beer, but from these documents it will exclude all the documents that contain the phrase "root beer." The difficulty here is that some breweries make root beer as well as beer, and you could be eliminating these breweries from the documents you retrieve.

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