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
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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
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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
