Library and Internet Skills

Table of Contents

Using Limits to Refine Your Searches

The Limit features in the catalogue are available when searching using the "contains" feature or when using the "Advanced Search."

Limits are not available when you use the "browse" feature to search the catalogue.

In the Advanced Search screen the limit options are available at the bottom of the page.

If you have just finished a keyword search you will see the option to "Limit Search" on the blue navigation bar. Clicking on this link will move you to the bottom of the page where the limiting options are located.

Limiting by Date

The "Pubyear" field on the limits form allows you to search for publications that were:

published during a specific year/decade/century
published after a specific year
published before a specific year/decade/century
published between specific years/decade/centuries

To Limit to:	Type
A specific year	The year. i.e. `1999` finds items published in 1999
A specific decade	the first thee digits of the year followed by a question mark. i.e. `199?` finds items published between 1990 and 1999
A specific century	the first two digits of the year followed by two question marks. i.e. `19??` finds items published between 1900 and 1999
after a specific year	the year preceded by a "greater than" sign. i.e. `>1939` finds items published from 1940 to the current year.
before a specific year	the year preceded by a "less than" sign. i.e. `<1867` finds items published up to 1866.
between specific years	the two years separated by a dash. i.e. `1911-2001` will find items published between 1911 and 2001
starting with a specific year	the year preceded by and equals sign and a "greater than" sign. i.e. `>=1975` finds items published from 1975 to the current year.
Ending with a specific year	the year preceded by and equals sign and a "less than" sign. i.e. `<=1975` finds items published up to and including 1975.

Please note: you cannot use a date limit to locate a specific volume/year of a periodical.

Type of Material

The "type" limit allows you to limit your search to a specific kind of material such a films, mixed-media, periodicals, electronic resources and microfilm. You can only limit to one type at a time.

Limiting by Library

The "Library" limit allows you to limit your search to the collection of a specific library, special collection or campus. You can only limit to one library/collection/campus at a time.

Limiting by Language

The "language" limit allows you to search for materials in a specific language. The drop down menu contains the 30 most common languages in our collection. If the language you require is not in this list click on the "more languages" option in the drop down menu for a complete list of available languages. You can only limit to one language at a time.