The following points will help you achieve successful and accurate search results: 

1. Successful results depend on accuracy. Always check your spellings!
   
   
2. The system is not case sensitive. Both lower and upper case will get the same results.
   
   
3. Punctuation is not important except for hyphens ( - )
   
   
4. Limits can be set before a search i.e. for DVD, Video and Large Print. Use the Set Limits function for this – available when doing all searches except an ISBN search (see point 11).
    
   
5. Author search is a very precise way of searching. Make sure your information is correct. Different results will be produced from surname + initial or surname + full first name eg: Dickens C and Dickens Charles. This can be also be used for musical artistes (eg: a search for ‘Morrissey’) or a band (eg: a search for ‘Belle and Sebastian')
   
   
6. Title search is also very precise; words must be in the right order and spelled correctly. This search path is useful when the exact title is known and you want to place a reservation for a popular book, CD or film.
   
   
7. Keywords achieve speedy and accurate results. Choose words that you know are spelled correctly. If your words do not produce a result, try some others. Keywords can be taken from the authors/artiste/bands/actors name or from anywhere in the title. If you want to limit the number of results on your screen don’t forget to Set Limits to just one format eg: books only, DVD’s only etc.
   
   
8. Author/keyword - type an author/artiste/band/actor in the ‘author box’ and a keyword in the ‘keyword box’ - e.g. ‘Dickens’ and ‘Christmas’ or ‘Beatles’ and ‘Submarine’.
   
   
9. Search for Class Number - type the class number (the number stuck on the library books spine) in the box to find all titles under that particular class (eg. 641.357 for items on herbs) If you are unsure of the exact number 641* will bring up all the entries starting with 641.
   
   
10. Search for Series - this option searches for titles with a common theme linking them – ie: items that have been catalogued as a series but that may not always have the same author. e.g. type for the ‘Teach yourself books’ or the ‘Doctor Who’ series type in ‘Teach yourself’ or ‘Doctor Who’ into the search box.
    
    
11. ISBN search - Use this search if you know the ISBN of a specific title. Every book has a unique ISBN number, usually 10 digits, printed by the barcode of the book. Type the ISBN into the search box (no spaces, no hyphens) to find that unique book eg: searching for 0330375253 will bring up ‘Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding’.

If you experience any difficulties using the catalogue please let us know by following the ‘Contact Library Services’ link in the right-hand menu. Alternatively please call into you local Library where staff will be pleased to assist you.