Search Tips

• Searches are not case-sensitive, so you may enter any words in all upper-case (capital letters), or lower-case, or in a combination of upper and lower case, and the results presented will not be affected.
  
• When searching for a title, omit the article e.g. “The”, “A”, “An”.
  
• Apostrophes are used in titles and author surnames where appropriate; however, avoid using all other non-alphanumeric characters, such as ?: – “ ( ) & . etc.
  
• Do not add extra spaces at the beginning or at the end of your entry e.g. “ five” or “five “.

To refine your search, use the drop down Catalogue List to search within a particular type of title (eg. books, music, videos). Alternatively, conduct a multiple field search by entering data into more than one search field at a time.

* If you are looking for a title by a particular author or artist, enter their first name or surname into the ‘Author/artist’ search field and press ‘Search’. This search option will find any items, across all categories, published by an author or artist with that name. Note that the author’s first name may not be listed.

* If you know the exact title of the item you are after, or even some of the words from the title, type them into the ‘Title Search’ and press ‘Search’. This search option is a good starting point for finding titles on a particular topic.

* If you know the ISBN of the title you are looking for, enter the ISBN into the space provided and press ‘Search’. As an ISBN is a unique number only ever assigned to a single book, it is not possible to enter additional search criteria if you choose to search by ISBN.

* If you are searching for titles about a particular subject, you can enter one or a few key words into the ‘Description Search’. This search will locate title descriptions (or blurbs) containing the key words you have chosen (Please note that not all titles in the PB&M database have a description).