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  • Capital letters don't matter - the search is not case sensitive. For example, if you type Science, science, SCIENCE or even sCiEnCe, the system will find the word science wherever it occurs without regard to the case of its letters.
  • Janus will search for the root of a word and its variant endings. For example, entering garden will find results containing garden, gardens, gardener, and gardening.
  • You can search for a phrase if you want the keywords to appear exactly as they are entered, e.g. ‘boat club’. This is a very specific search. Please do not use speech marks to contain a phrase, i.e. "boat club", otherwise Janus will return a failed search.
  • Other non-alphanumeric characters are ignored, so searching for £50 would find £50, $50, and just plain 50.

The Advanced Search option uses Boolean Logic which is a system of operators (AND, OR, and NOT) that are used to link keywords and phrases in order to perform precise searches. The basic principles involved are outlined below.

Using AND combines keywords so that each result contains all of the keywords entered. For example, education AND women will find results containing both of these keywords, although they do not necessarily have to appear next to each other.

Using OR combines keywords so that each result contains at least one of the keywords. For example, searching for education OR women will find results that contain either keyword, and so gives broader search results.

Using AND NOT excludes keywords so that each result does not contain the keyword following and not in the search string. For example, searching for education AND NOT women will find results that contain the keyword education but NOT the keyword women, therefore giving narrower search results.

NB The AND NOT operator should be used with caution as it can sometimes exclude relevant search results. Only use it if you cannot narrow down a search sufficiently using other means.


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