The Expert Search interface involves the use of a command language specifically designed for the Aleph software on which this catalogue is configured

Here is an example of a search using the command language:
((wau=carlyle or ruskin or hegel) and (wti=cultur?)) not (wsu=art?)
This search finds anything written by individuals named Carlyle or Ruskin or Hegel with a word beginning with cultur, for example, culture, cultures, cultural, and so on, in any title which has not been assigned a subject beginning with the word art, for example, art, arts, artist, artistic, and so on.

Following are the most common abbreviations used by the ALEPH command language. For a complete list, see Search in the Help.

WRD - Words
WTI - Words in title field
WAU - Words in author field
WPU - Words in publisher field
WSU - Words in subject field
WYR - Year of publication

Lowercase letters will find matches of capitalized words also. For example, computer will find matches for computer, Computer and COMPUTER.

Boolean AND is assumed between words. You may use the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT in your search string. For example, you could type heart or cardiac to retrieve all records having heart or cardiac in them.

Use the ? character to find matches that contain portions of words. For example, gun? will retrieve gun, guns, gunners, gunnery, gunning, etc. In another example, ? ology will retrieve anthropology, archaeology, psychology, etc. The ? character may also be used to find variant spellings. For example, alumi?m will find both the American spelling, aluminum, and the British spelling, aluminium.