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| Entering the following in the Keywords to search box: | Results in: |
|---|---|
| Canada | Selections containing the word Canada. |
| Canadian | Selections containing the word Canadian. |
| canad* |
Selections containing any word that begins with the letters Canad, such as Canada, Canadian, Canadians. Enter the root of your wild card search all in lower case. The search term cannot start with the wild card ("*egin" will not work). It can be used for subtle variations in spelling like "harb*r*" (which should return "harbour" and "harbors"). |
| Canada OR Ontario | Selections containing the word Canada or the word Ontario. The "OR" must be entered in CAPS. Alternatively, go to the Advanced Search screen, enter "Canada Ontario" and select the "or" radio button from the "Logic between keywords" list. |
| Canada AND Ontario | Selections containing the word Canada and the word Ontario, but not selections containing just one of those words. The "AND" must be entered in CAPS. Alternatively, go to the Advanced Search screen, enter "Canada Ontario" and select the "and" radio button from the "Logic between keywords" list. |
| Ontario Canada | Same as search above. The search instruction and is understood. |
| Ontario AND NOT Canada | Selections containing the word Ontario but not the word Canada. |
| "Great Lakes" | Selections containing the phrase Great Lakes. Alternatively, go to the Advanced Search screen, enter "Great Lakes" and select the "phrase" radio button from the "Logic between keywords" list. Note: not all words are stored in the index so words like "of" and "in" may be ignored in your phrase. |
The Fuzzy search attempts to enlarge the search by allowing the search engine to find words spelled nearly the same as the ones you entered. It does this by simple letter substitution. For example a Fuzzy search on "Macdonald" returns records with "McDonald" and "Macdonalds" as well. A Fuzzier search adds variations like "Donald."
The Geographic Location attempts to limit your search by searching the word you enter as a geographic place. Many of the records in the index are not actually indexed by place, and by not having the term you are searching will be eliminated from the results. It is a powerful way to narrow results but use it with caution.
The Relaxed constraints re-issues your search looking for any of your search terms, instead of limiting the search to records that contain all your terms.
