General searching

  1. Enter search terms in one or more of the appropriate textboxes.

    You do not need to know the exact details - for example, the surname of the person will suffice. The asterisk character (*) can be used as a wildcard.

  2. Select other search fields from the Other dropdown list and enter your search terms in the adjacent textbox if required

    Searching for multiple terms in the one textbox

  3. Select an appropriate option from the adjacent Match dropdown list to define how terms entered in one textbox are combined in your search. For example, where 'employment contract' is entered in the Title textbox:

    ALL WORDS retrieves items that have both 'employment' and 'contract' in the Title field including 'The

    employment
    of
    contract
    negotiators'

    ANY WORDS retrieves items that have either employment' and 'contract' in the Title field (as well as those items that have both 'employment' and 'contract' in the Title field) such as 'The law of

    contract
    ',
    Employment
    law in Australia' and 'The
    employment
    of
    contract
    negotiators;

    EXACT WORDS retrieves items that have both 'employment' and 'contract in the Title field but does not retrieve "'

    contract
    ors' or 'contracts'. This search will look for exact word matches only

    EXACT PHRASE retrieves items that match the exact phrase entered in the Title textbox such as 'The executive employment contract' but not 'The employment law contract in Australia'

    Searching for terms in more than one textbox

  4. Select an appropriate option from the adjacent Combine dropdown list to define how multiple fields are combined in a search. For example, where 'Federal' is entered in the Title textbox and 'Employment contract' is entered in the Subject textbox:

    AND retrieves items that have both 'Federal' in the Title field AND 'Employment Contract' in the Subject field such as:

    Request: 'Federal industrial relations law'
    Subject: 'Employment Contract ? Australia'

    OR retrieves items that have either 'Federal' in the Title field OR 'Employment Contract' in the Subject field such as:

    Request: 'Federal workplace relations legislation'
    Subject: 'Industrial Law'

    Request: 'Australian industrial relations law'
    Subject: 'Employment contract ? Australia'

    NOT retrieves items that have 'Federal' in the Title field but NOT 'Employment Contract' in the Subject field such as:

    Request: 'Federal industrial relations law'
    Subject: 'Industrial Law'

    But not

    Request: 'Federal industrial relations law in Australia'
    Subject: 'Employment Contract ? Australia'

    5. Searching against fields with controlled thesaurus lists

  5. Start typing in either the Author or Subject fields, and the auto-complete function will provide suggested words. For example, enter the letter T in the Subject textbox.

    6. Limiting your search result

  6. Select a relevant Location, Material Type and/or [Publication] Date option on the Limit Results By section of the screen to reduce the number of items retrieved in your search result

    7. Ordering your search result

  7. In the Display Results section of the screen, select a relevant option from the Order By dropdown list to define the order in which items are displayed in your search result

    8. Increasing the number of items display on your search result page

  8. In the Display Results section of the screen, enter the number of items you want displayed on each page of your search result in the Items per Page textbox

    9. Executing your search

  9. Click on the Search button or press [Enter] on your keyboard to execute the search