Libweb Library Catalogue

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I?

• Carry out a search
• Combine words using AND, OR, NOT
• Combine fields using AND, OR, NOT
• Search for one or more authors
• Restrict my search to books
• Search for a range of years
• Restrict my search to the latest update
• Truncate words (for a broader search)
• Combine or edit previous searches
• Use the Terms Index to help me search
• Change the way results are displayed
• Change the way results are sorted (i.e. order of results)
• Save or print out my search results
• Download my search results to EndNote
• Find out about indexing terms used in the library database

How do I carry out a search?

1. Type your keyword into the appropriate search box
2. For a general search use the "Keywords anywhere in record" box
3. You can also choose to search only a specific field (title, serial title, author, search terms or year) and combine fields
4. Click on the SEARCH button.  Pressing the Enter key does not run the search, it takes you to the Terms Index.
5. The Search Results page will appear with any results found.
6. The number of hits will be displayed at the top of the page.  Only the first 500 results will appear so you may need to refine your search by combining words and/or fields (see below)
7. See Display options or find out how to save or print your search results. 

How do I combine words using AND, OR, NOT?

1. If you want to narrow down the search, type two or more key words into the relevant search box, joined with * which means AND .
2. As well as using * for AND, you can also use + for OR and ^ for NOT.
3. It is not possible to specify that words must appear next to each other (adjacency search)

How do I combine fields using AND, OR, NOT?

1. To combine fields, type your first keyword(s) in the relevant box(es), and select AND, OR or NOT from the radio buttons.  Then type your other term(s) in the other relevant box(es)
2. e.g. to combine an author and a year, type in the author, make sure that AND is the selected operator, and type in a year .

How do I search for authors?

There are two ways to find author(s): 

1. Using the Terms Index to search for author(s)

1. You can browse the list of authors by clicking on the LIST button . Type in the first few letters of the surname and click GO TO.
2. You can then select either a surname, or surname and initial of an author. Click SELECT and then SEARCH.  
3. To search for more than one author, repeat this process for additional authors and combine the searches using the Search History

2. Typing the author(s) directly into the search box

1. If you are combining the author with keywords or a year, the surname may be enough.
2. You can type in the surname and initial in the exact way it appears in the database e.g. to find K. Weber you need to type weber, k. (surname comma space initial full stop) 
3. To search for more than one author, type in the names joined with * which means AND e.g.  bryan, g.w.*gibbs, p.e.  (surname comma space initial full stop initial full stop)

How do I restrict my search to books?

1. To restrict your search to books, type book in the "search terms" box
2. e.g. to search for a book by G. Groeger type Groeger, G. in the "author" box,  and book in the "search terms" box.  Make sure that AND is the selected operator.
3. You can also search for books on a particular subject by typing book in the "search terms" box and a keyword e.g. statistics in the "keywords anywhere in record" box.

How do I search for a range of years?

To search for a range of years, you need to type in e.g. 1993+1994+1995 which means 1993 OR 1994 OR 1995. 

How do I restrict my search to the latest update?

To restrict your search to the latest update, type e.g. 0409 (this means September 2004) in the "search terms" box. You can combine this with keywords to narrow down your search.

To restrict your search to the most recently added older references type e.g. ret0409 in the "search terms" box. You can combine this with keywords to narrow down your search.

How do I truncate words?

1. LIBWEB will automatically search for exact matches for your keywords. 
2. To truncate words (for a broader search), remove the tick from the box marked Exact Match of Words e.g. if the box is ticked, typing in fish will return only records containing fish .
3. If the box is unticked, typing in fish will return records containing fish eries, fish ing and fish . 
4. If you prefer you can leave the tick in the box and use $ to truncate words e.g. fish$ .  If you use $ without the tick then no results will be found.

How do I combine or edit previous searches? (using the Search History)

1. When you click on the HISTORY button, a screen appears showing all of the searches you have carried out.  You can view and edit each query by clicking on VIEW QUERY.  
2. To combine searches, type into the box the numbers of the searches, combined with * which means AND e.g. #1*#5 combines searches 1 and 5.
3. To rerun a search type in the number of the search e.g. #4
4. Click SUBMIT to carry out the new search or rerun the search
5. If the search history gets too full, the text box doesn't appear.  To solve this, click CLEAR  and the search history will then be cleared.

How do I use the Terms Index?

1. If you do not know what to enter as a search term, click on the LIST button.  
2. This will display a list of the search terms used in that field, and allows you to select relevant terms.
3. To select a term and to use it in a search, either move through the list using the PGDN and PGUP buttons or type the first few letters of a word in the box at the top of the window and click GO TO. 
4. Tick the box next to the search term(s) you require.  Click SELECT and then SEARCH.

How do I change the way results are displayed?

1. Results will automatically appear in Short format
2. To view the Full format , click on the record number (the underlined number)
3. You can also choose to view the search results in Full or Bibliographic format by choosing from the drop down menu on the search page. 

How do I change the way results are sorted? (i.e. order of results)

1. If you choose to sort by author, results will be listed alphabetically by author and then by date, with the oldest records listed first.
2. If you choose to sort by date, results will be listed chronologically, with the newest records listed first.

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How do I save or print search results?

1. Searches can be printed or saved in various formats from LIBWEB.
2. Select the records you want to save or print by marking them. You can go to another page and continue marking records, you don't need to download each page at a time (if you go back to a page you've already marked, the marks won't show, but don't worry the records will still download).
3. Click the download button at the top of the page.
4. Choose from the following format options: 

5. Click on DOWNLOAD
6. You can now either save the file as a text file to your hard disk or open it.  
7. If you want to print the results, click OPEN then choose File...Print.  You can then save the file as well if you wish.   
8. If you are asked which program to open the file with, choose either Notepad, WordPad or Word.
9. To save the file, click SAVE and select the drive/directory you want to save the search in, click OK.

How do I download results to Endnote?

The following instructions enable you to download references from LIBWEB into an EndNote database.

1. Search for your references in LIBWEB and select the references you need by ticking the box next to them. Click on DOWNLOAD.  
2. Choose the option "EndNote format"
3. Click on DOWNLOAD and save the file as a text file to your hard disk.
4. Open Endnote and the database you wish to import references into.
5. Choose Import from the File menu.
6. Click on the "Choose file" button and select the file that you saved in LIBWEB, make sure that "files of type" is set to All Files
7. Import Option should be set to "EndNote Import"
8. Click on OK and your references should be imported, to see the whole database choose "show all" from the "Reference" menu.

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What indexing terms are used in the Library Database?

All new material which comes into the library is scanned for British waters and marine pollution references.  These papers are indexed in more detail with taxonomic groups added.  Click on the links below to see the indexing terms used in the LIBWEB database.  

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