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To narrow the scope of your search you can use the following special sets of predefined words, called operators, to join together your search terms:

• Boolean operators
• Proximity operators
• Wildcard searching

Boolean operators

Monthly Catalog allows you to combine your search terms so you can target your search at more specific areas. For example, from the Search page you can find records in Monthly Catalog which contain the words 'immigration' and 'nationality'.

You combine your search terms using the following special keywords, called Boolean operators:

• AND
• OR
• NOT

AND

The AND operator retrieves all records that contain the search terms it separates. However, this type of search normally retrieves fewer results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.

e.g. immigration AND nationality.

If you have entered search terms in more than one search box, Monthly Catalog treats them as if they were combined using the AND operator.

Note: if you want to search for the word 'and' in a phrase, such as 'Interior and Insular Affairs Committee', you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotation marks; for example, "Interior and Insular Affairs Committee".

OR

The OR operator retrieves all records that contain either or both of the search terms it separates. This type of search retrieves more results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.

e.g. oil OR gas.

If you select more than one search term from a list, Monthly Catalog automatically combines them in the search box using this operator.

NOT

The NOT operator retrieves all records that contain the first search term but not the second.

e.g. pollution NOT industrial

Proximity operators

Monthly Catalog not only allows you to search for a particular word or phrase, but also enables you to refine your searches by using two proximity operators to look for words that are close to each other:

• NEAR
• FBY (Followed BY)

NEAR

The NEAR operator retrieves records containing terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in any order.

e.g.:
housing NEAR urban
domestic NEAR.3 service

FBY (Followed By)

FBY retrieves records containing terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in a specified order.

e.g.:
export FBY trade
federal FBY.4 laws

If you don't set a distance, Monthly Catalog will list all items that contain the specified terms within 10 words of each other.

Wildcard characters

Monthly Catalog allows you to use the * (asterisk) wildcard character to find variations on a word ending. * can represent zero, one or more characters, and can be used anywhere in the search term, e.g. surv* (for survey, surveys, surveillance), or f*ture (for fracture, future, furniture).

You can also use the ? wildcard character anywhere in the search term. ? can represent zero or one character, e.g. wom?n (for woman, women).

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