- Enter all or initial part of title, starting with the first word: king and i
- Drop initial articles (a, das, the) and punctuation (", ¿, ! ) in any language.
- Truncation is automatic.

- For personal names, enter surname first: shakespeare william
- For group names, enter in direct order: army war college
- Truncation is automatic.

- Enter standard subject heading, name, or genre term: solar energy
- Start with the left-most word: vietnamese conflict 1961 1975
- Omit most punctuation: united states army history (especially double-hyphens in subject subdivisions)
- Truncation is automatic.

- " " surround exact phrases: "war of the worlds"
- + marks essential terms: +hurricanes +gulf
- ! eliminates terms: pets !cats
- ? truncates: entrepr? --> finds entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, etc.

EXAMPLE: soldiers +"afr? american?" +"civil war" !fiction

- " " for exact phrases: "tax reform"
- Boolean AND, OR, NOT: (mars OR venus) AND mission
- Index codes refine searches: KSFG western
--> finds western as subject form/genre term
- ? truncates: polic? --> finds police, policing, policy, etc.

EXAMPLE: (wood? OR forest) AND "resource manage?"

- Enter all or the initial part of a call number: f128.4 (include period)
- Enter spacing and punctuation accurately: p85.m23 r6 (include period/spaces)
- Truncation is automatic.

- For LCCNs, omit hyphen/add leading zeros: 89-456 is entered 89000456
- For ISSNs, always include hyphen and do not use " ":
1094-1304 is entered 1094-1304
- For ISBNs, omit hyphens/spaces: 0-553-37783-3 is entered 0553377833