Keyword - relevance ranked
A Google-like search that finds ALL your search terms in the record. Results are sorted by relevance. Records that have the search terms appearing in the title or subject, and as a phrase or close together, are ranked highest.
Enter your search terms without any connecting words.
Example: library archives british columbia history

Keyword - use AND, OR, NOT "a phrase"
Search terms must be connected with the Boolean operators AND OR NOT and phrases must be in "double quotation marks". You can also use parentheses to build more complex searches. Results are sorted chronologically.
Example: (library or archives) and "british columbia" and history
For more information on building complex searches using Boolean operators, parentheses, nesting, and truncation, go to the bottom of this wiki page.

Field Code Searching: In the Keyword - use AND, OR, NOT "a phrase" search option, you can also limit your search to specific fields using these field codes.
nkey – searches the author field - authors can be persons, corporations, and more
tkey – searches the title field - titles include title, series title, previous title
skey – searches the subject field
seri – searches the series field
jkey – searches the title field for journals only

Example: (tkey library or tkey archives) and skey "british columbia" and skey history
NOTE: You must put the field code in front of each word or phrase. You cannot do this: tkey (library or archives).

TITLE
Omit leading articles (the, a, le, an), and enter as much of the title as required to be unique. Some formats have special challenges when searching by title, as the format is indicated in the title (e.g. Frantz Fanon [videorecording] : black skin, white mask). Also finds series titles.

AUTHOR
For finding works by a person, corporation, conference, government agency, etc. Enter last name first.

SUBJECT HEADING
For finding works on a specific topic. Requires knowledge of the Library of Congress Subject Headings∞. If you do not know the subject headings, do a keyword search, find useful and relevant records, and then follow the hyperlinked subject headings.

AND - connecting search terms with the word AND results in ALL the search terms appearing in the results. You can use it to narrow your search.

Example: cats AND dogs - both words must appear in your search results.

OR - connecting search terms with OR results in ANY of the search terms appearing in your results. You can use it to broaden your search. It is often used to connect synonymous search terms.

Example: cats or kittens - either word (or both) will appear in your search results.

NOT: connecting search terms with the word NOT excludes the search term from the results.

Example: cats NOT siamese - will find results that have the word 'cats', but exclude results that have the word 'siamese'.

Examples:

You can use truncation to find variations on a search term. Enter the first part of the word (stem) and add the truncation symbol (in the UBC Library catalogue, the ?)
Example: catalog? and librar?
Catalog? will retrieve catalog, catalogue, cataloging, cataloguer, etc.
Librar? will retrieve library, libraries, librarians, librarianship, etc.

Use the truncation symbol with caution. Cat? will find catalogue, but also catastrophe and cats.

((tkey librar? or tkey archiv?) and skey "british columbia") not history