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Princeton University Library Catalog

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Search Tips

  • Keyword searching
    Combine keywords to find specific items. By default all keywords contained in your search will be found in the records of items in the search results.
    Examples:
    • morrison beloved
    • Egypt foreign relations
  • Phrase searching
    Use quotation marks to search as a phrase.
    Examples:
    • "free market"
    • "mourning becomes electra"
  • Excluding words or phrases
    Use "-" or "NOT" before a word or phrase to exclude it.
    Examples:
    • jaguar -car -automobiles
    • jaguar NOT car NOT automobiles
  • Joining queries
    Use "OR", "AND", and "NOT" to create complex boolean logic. You can use parentheses in your complex expressions. Use the Advanced Search to join across multiple fields.
    Examples:
    • activism OR "social justice"
    • India AND (activism OR "social justice")
    • (India NOT Indiana) AND (activism OR "social justice")
  • Truncation and wildcards

    English terms are automatically stemmed to include plural and singular forms, as well as common suffix and tense variations.

    An asterisk may also be used to truncate any term from either the beginning or end of the word, or in the middle of the word to replace a character.

    Examples:
    • *est (This search would match pest, test, jest, etc.)
    • art* (This search would match art, arts, artistic, artisan, artistry, artisanal, etc.)
    • wom*n (This search would match woman, women, womyn.)
  • Facets

    From the main search results page, adding a facet means the search result *must* include that facet to be included in the search results (a boolean AND search).

    If you click on "Edit search" from an existing search, it will take you to the advanced search page. Adding a facet from the advanced search page means that it *may* include that facet (a boolean OR search).

    For example, if I wanted a work that was in the library on George Frideric Handel, but only in languages I'm familiar with, I could do a keywork search for "George Handel", then limit by the facet "In the Library", then click "Edit search" and select "English" and "German" from the facets and click Search. This will give search results in either German or English.

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