Relational Operators are used most times by our library staff when searching numeral expressions, such as a date. We use relational operators by enclosing the field name in braces { } followed by the relational operator and then the number. For example, if we wanted to find a catalogue record that has a publication date of “2006”, we would search the 260 field (Publication, distribution, etc.) by inputting {260}=2006. The results we get are shown above. The symbols we use include:
• Less than <
• Greater than >
• Equal to =
• Less than or equal to <=
• Greater than or equal >=
Substitution and Truncation
Substitution and Truncation uses “Wildcard” symbols to aid us in locating records in our catalogue. A Wildcard is a character that stands for any letter. Using Wildcards symbols in our search term forces the computer to locate records by filing in the blank space. We can use these symbols together or separately and only at the middle or end of a search term. They need to be enclosed within quotation marks.
Substitution is using the symbol “?” to represent a character within the word or term being researched. For example, by writing wom“?”n, our results would display all records containing “woman” or “women”.
Truncation uses the “$” symbol; it can represent one or more characters and can be placed anywhere within the search terms. For example, Collected “$” and other Plays will result in a display of records matching “Collected Searchlights and other Plays.” Another example, searching John“$” will locate records containing terms John, Johns, Johnson, Johnston, Johnsgard, Johnsonbaugh, and Johnstone.
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