How to use CD-ROMs and other databases

Truncation

Many searches can be made easier by using truncation (sometimes called wildcarding). To do this you use a symbol in place of a letter or letters in a search term.

For example, in the library catalogue you can key in Australia? and find all the words in the database that begin with Australia eg Australia, Australian, Australians. In other databases Australia$ might have the same result.

Most databases and search engines offer truncation, although the truncation symbol varies. They could be a $, ?, *, or #, if in doubt, check the Help files in the database you are using.

You can also use truncation to look for alternate spellings of terms eg colo?r would find both color and colour. This function is not available in the library catalogue, you need to specify the alternate terms eg color OR colour.