Explore: Finding books, journals and more

In this section you will find information on how to:

• perform basic searches on Explore, using keywords and by selecting specific resources;
• build searches in the basic search box and use Boolean operators and other search techniques to improve your search results.

To perform a basic search on Explore, enter a simple keyword in the search box. You can use one or more keywords but remember that Explore assumes that you are searching for ALL the words you type.

We recommend that you sign into Explore before starting your search.

• Why should I sign in to Explore?

To start searching Explore:

• Type one or more words into the search bar. As soon as you start typing Explore will show you a list of searchable resources on Explore.
• You can select to search materials within an individual resource for example: Library cataologue if you want to search for print or electronic books. Or you can search across a range of resources simultaneously.
• if you know which individual resource you want to search you can select it from the list, otherwise just hit the Enter key on your keybooard or click the magnifying glass button to search 'All resources'.

• You can also use the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to select a specific resource.

You can do more than just a simple keyword search with the search box. Try the following options to get the best results for your search:

• Searching for a phrase
• Searching for a specified word or phrase
• Searching using a DOI, ISBN or ISSN
• Excluding words or phrases
• Searching using wildcard characters
• Grouping terms within a query

To search for a phrase, type double quotation marks around the phrase. You can combine both words and phrases in your search.

For example, to search for global warming as one term, type the following in the search box:

“global warming”

NOTE: If you do not enclose the phrase with quotation marks, the system will find items that contain the individual words in the phrase, regardless of whether these words are located next to each other in the order specified.

You can search for items that contain at least one of the words or phrases you type in the search box. To do so, type OR between the words or phrases.

For example, to search for items with the word Irish or the word Celtic, type the following in the search box:

Irish OR Celtic

NOTE: If you search for words or phrases without specifying OR or NOT, Explore assumes that you are searching for all the specified words or phrases.

If you are searching something very specific, for example an edition of a book or a e-article, you can search Explore with:

• DOI (digital object identifier) DOIs are assigned to digital materials and generally start with a 10 e.g. - 10.1016/j.scaman.2017.12.002. To search for a specific article using its DOI, type or paste the full DOI into the search bar and click Search. If your DOI search doesn't bring back any results, try searching for the title or ISSN of the journal as we may hold it in print format.
• ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) an 8 digits number used to identify a specific journal or serial publication e.g. 2329-7131. Searching on a journal's ISSN will retrieve results for both the overall title and any articles available electronically. To search using an ISSN, enter the full number (including hyphen) in the search bar and click Search.
• ISBN (International Standard Book Number) a 10 or 13 digits number that identifies a specific book e.g. 9781107028784, normally it shown as barcode on the back cover of a book. To search using an ISBN, enter the 10- or 13-digit number into the search bar and click Search..

You can exclude items that contain specific words or phrases. To do so, type NOT and then type the word or phrase to exclude.

For example, to search for items with the word Celtic and exclude any of items containing the word Irish, type the following in the search box:

Celtic NOT Irish.

NOTE: If you search for words or phrases without specifying OR or NOT, Explore assumes that you are searching for all the specified words or phrases.

You can include wildcard characters in your searches as follows:

Use a question mark ? to substitute a single character. For example, to search for records that contain the strings woman, women and so forth type:

wom?n

Use an * asterisk to truncate the root of a word. For example, to search for records that contain strings, such as culture, cultural and culturally type:

cultur*

You can use parentheses to group terms within a query. For example, to search for Shakespeare and either tragedy or sonnet, type the following in the search box:
Shakespeare (tragedy OR sonnet).

Remember if you are combining words in Explore using Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT you must enter them in upper case, e.g. doctor OR physician.