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Discovery Guide

This guide gives basic details on searching the library collections using the Discovery tool

Quick search tips

  • Searching for a particular resource? Try entering just the title instead of using the full citation.
  • Leave out punctuation.
  • If you're topic searching, put in the most relevant words first.
  • Check your spelling!
     
Note: Discovery includes many resources, but not everything. We recommend searching via our subscribed databases for more advanced or specific searches. 

Basic search

  1. type the word(s) or phrases in the search box. Use search operators to improve your results
  2. you may restrict your results to All Resources, Library Catalogue & RPR, or Journal titles using the menu beside the search box (All Resources is the default.)
  3.  select the magnifying glass to view the list of results

catalogue search bar

Viewing & refining results

Select the hotspots on the image below to learn how to refine, filter and view your results.

Search operators

Search operators are combinations of words and symbols that improve your search results. By focusing on certain keywords and excluding others, they allow you to search more accurately and effectively. 

Search operator Example Explained
Boolean operators  

Combine your search terms with boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT to either narrow or broaden your results list.

They must be written in UPPER CASE, so they are not treated as keywords.
AND sustainable AND revegetation     

Will search for items with both words, sustainable and revegetation, in any order.

  • Connecting more concepts with AND will focus your search and you will retrieve fewer results.
OR cardiac OR heart

Will search for items with the words cardiac or heart.

  • Connecting more concepts with OR will broaden your search and you will retrieve more results.
NOT biosecurity NOT covid

Will search for items with the first word but not the second.

  • Using NOT will reduce the number of results. Be careful using NOT as it may omit relevant results.
Quotation marks  “…” "renewable energy"  

If you are searching for a concept with two or more words i.e. renewable energy,  you should use double quotations “…” to keep those words together as a phrase
Parentheses (heart OR lung) AND bypass
(Facebook NOT Twitter) AND social media		 Parentheses (or brackets) combine keywords, control the order of boolean operators, and create more focused search queries

Truncation *    

 pollut* finds pollute, pollutes, pollutant, pollutants, polluting, pollution Finds all variants of a word with multiple endings. Use the root word followed by a truncation symbol at the end.

Wildcard ?

organi?ation will find organisation or organization

 This symbol finds a single alternative or additional letter within a keyword.