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 CN News Library Search Help

The CN News Library search can be as simple or as complex as you need it to be. Usually you will just need to enter a few words best describing what you are trying to locate. To perform more complicated searches you might use logic operators or special pattern matches.

Example: greenbrier hotel shelter tour

Searching Rules of Thumb:

If you get too many junk or nonsense answers, try:

  • Adding some more words to your search.
  • Using the Exclusion Operator (-) to remove unwanted terms (see "Search Logic" below).
  • If you are searching for a phrase, hyphenate the words together.
  • Searching one year at a time.

    If you don't get any answers, or too few answers:

  • Remove some words to your search.
  • Check your spelling.
  • Search all years.
  • If all attempts fail to find your article, it's not currently in the library.

    Keywords Phrases and Wild-cards:

    To locate words, type them in just as you would in a word processor. Letter cases will be ignored.
    The wild-card character * (asterisk) may be used to match just the prefix of a word or to ignore the middle of something.

    To locate a number of adjacent words in a specific order, an exact phrase, surround them with " (double quotation) characters. Putting a '-' (hyphen) between words will also force order.

    Examples:

    Query                  Locates
---------------------------------------------------
john                   john, John
"john public"          John Public
web-browser            Web browser, web-browser
John*Public            John Q. Public, John Public
456*a*def              1-23456-789-ABCDEF

    Search Logic

    '-' (without)
    The '-'(minus) is the most commonly used logic symbol. It means the answer should EXCLUDE references to that item.

    '+' (required)
    The '+'(plus) symbol in front of a search item means that the answer MUST INCLUDE that item. 

      
Example               Finds 
----------------------------------------------------
bob sam joe           Bob with Sam and Joe
bob sam -joe          Bob with Sam without Joe
bob sam +joe          Bob with Sam and require Joe

    Natural Language Searching:

    You may enter a search query in the form of a sentence or question. The software will automatically identify the important words and phrases within your search query and remove the "noise words".

    Example: What is the population of Putnam County?

    The software will search for:
    population AND Putnam AND County

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