Search

Entering a search term or search phrase in the search box (available in the top right corner of each page on the site) will return a list of corresponding web pages and documents available on the site.

Advanced searching options

You can make a search much more specific by using more advanced search techniques, such as Boolean logic, phrase searching and wildcard searching.

Boolean logic

Boolean logic describes the relationship between search terms. That is, if you join terms with the operator 'and', the search will return results containing both terms only, thus returning fewer results. For example, a search on pest and management, would discover records that contained the term pest and the term management, though not necessarily combined in the phrase pest management (see phrase searching).

If you join search terms with the operator 'or', the search will return results containing either or both terms, thus returning more results. For example, a search on pest or management, would discover records that contained the term pest, those that contained the term management, and those containing both terms.

You can also limit a search by including the operator 'not' in your search term. For example, a search on drugs not illegal would include pages or documents containing the term drugs, but eliminate those also including the term illegal.

If there is no operator present, the sites search engine interprets the space between terms as 'and', so if you want to widen the scope of your search, include the 'or' operator in your search term.

Phrase searching

Including search terms in double inverted commas will return only results that include the delimited phrase.

For example, a search for "Chinese cooking" will return only results that include the phrase 'Chinese cooking'.

Wildcard searching

To extend a search to include different word endings, the wildcard symbol (*) can be used at the end of a word. (If used at the beginning, it is interpreted as a normal character.)

For example, a search on fatal, would return only documents or pages including that term.

A search on fatal* would also return documents or pages including terms such as fatality, or fatalism.