Punctuation and Special Characters
- All searches are not case sensitive.
- The ampersand (&) is equal to a spelled out word AND.
- Apostrophes are removed.
- Most other punctuation marks are replaced by spaces. The following sample searches produce the same results:
- All the King’s Men or all the kings men
- Fathers & Sons or fathers and sons
- O’Malley, Walter or omalley walter
- Mexico-history or mexico history
- U.S. News or U S News or u. s. news but not US News since there is no space between
U and S
Diacritics
Diacritics (special symbols, accent marks, etc.) may be searched both with and without diacritics. If a search is entered with diacritics, only records containing those diacritics will be retrieved. If it is entered without any diacritics, both records with and without diacritics will be retrieved.
- The search for "caña" will retrieve only records with a tilde over the "n".
- The search for "cana" will retrieve records with "caña" and "cana".
You may search for the following special characters in the WebOPAC:
- at sign (@)
- dollar sign ($)
- number sign (#)
- percent sign (%)
- plus sign (+)
For more information about constructing a search, see What advanced techniques can I use to search the catalog?
Glossary
- Automation system, or integrated library system: a computer system that helps users search for library materials through a Web interface.
- Record: a description of library materials in library-specific terms. Used by the automation system for searching. Records consist of fields.
- Field: a designated area of a record. Examples: Title, Author, Subject, Call Number, Notes, ISBN, etc. Available search options are based on the fields indexed by the automation system.
- Item: an actual book, CD, DVD, videocassette, magazine, microfilm, e-book, etc.
