Searching for Resources

If the number of results is large, you can refine the search.

When you search the following rules apply:

• All searches are not case-sensitive. Example: searching for cat, Cat, and CAT are three identical searches.
• Accented characters are ignored. Example: searching for resume and résumé are identical searches.
• All multiple word searches use an implied OR so that the search results yield items with any of the words in the search string. For example, the search string black cat yields items with the word black, the word cat, or both words.
• Quotation marks are required to search for two or more words in the exact word order you want them to appear. Example: black and white is equivalent to searching for black or white. Resources with either word or both words are found. Searching for "black and white" looks for that exact phrase.

• Common words, such as a, the, an, and, for, and so on, are ignored for most searches but not in phrase searches.
• All searches look for the words you enter and variations of these words. For example, searching for blacken also finds blackened, blackens, and blackening. When you search, exact matches appear first, followed by the word variations. This means that when searching for the word blacken, items with that word appears before items with the variations blackened or blackening.
• Multiple word searches can include the plus (+) and minus (-) signs to show required or excluded search terms. Words following a plus sign indicate a required word; only items with the required word(s) are included in the results. Words following the minus sign are excluded from the results. For example, black +cat searches for items that contain both words. The search string black -cat searches for items that contain black but not the word cat. You can also combine these symbols and use them more than once in a search string. For example, cat +black +white -striped -beige finds items with the words cat, black, and white in them but not striped or beige.