By topic
Types of searches
Use Library Search to discover resources by topic across the majority of Library resources. Library Search covers print and electronic books, articles, e-journals, newspapers, theses and more.
- AI research assistant (beta) is a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) service. You can use natural language questions to ask a question. It will retrieve and rank results, then generate an overview based on the top five results. Recommended for an overview of topics that are new to you or as a source of background information. You must be signed in to use this.
- Simple keyword searching - results are ranked by relevancy to your search terms. The ranking combined with the Topic facet in the right side-bar is often sufficient to discover suitable information resources on your topic.
- Advanced Search offers more control. You can choose to look for keywords in a subject field. This field contains headings assigned by cataloguers describing what the resource is about. The title is also a good choice, though not all titles are descriptive of the work itself.
Signing in is recommended for the best experience with requesting options and your personal library account being immediately available.
Topics Facet
Use the topic facet in the right side-bar of Library Search to refine your search results.
Include & exclude topics.
Under the topic facet, Library Search provides options to include or exclude terms from your search results. Your selections are shown at the top of the side-bar so you can modify your choices as you review the results.
Advanced Search
In the advanced search you can choose which fields to search. This is much more specific than keywords anywhere. The "subject" field is a great choice for topics, but "title" is also good.
Complex searches
In Library Search, both Simple and Advanced searches support Boolean operators, wildcards and parentheses when you want to be very specific. This is the case with many other databases too.
| Operators & special characters | Action in Library Search | See the results |
|---|---|---|
| AND | includes a word or phrase | shakespeare AND tragedies |
| NOT | excludes a word or phrase | digits NOT fingers |
| OR | includes alternatives or synonyms | diversity OR inclusion |
| () | group search terms | |
| ? | single character wildcard finds variation in spelling. For example, to include results containing woman or women | forem?n |
| * | multiple character wildcard finds variations in spelling where more than one character varies. For example, to include results containing culture or cultural or culturally | cultur* |
| "" | retrieves the words between the quotation marks as an exact phrase. The words are adjacent and in the same order. Do not use a wildcard in a phrase. Use for a more specific set of results. | "Mexican walking fish" |
| & | treats this as if you had entered AND. A search for obstetrics & gynecology will retrieve titles such as "Obstetrics and gynecology" | "anatomy & physiology" |
| $, @, etc | characters are automatically removed from exact title searches |
If you use multiple operators (AND, OR, NOT), they are treated with left-to-right precedence unless you also use brackets to group search terms.
An appointment with a faculty librarian can help you develop your complex searching skills.
Library research guides
Library Research Guides provide summaries of the best resources for the various disciplines studied at Bond. Resources include journal databases and other specialised resources.
Study areas
Get help from your faculty librarian
Library staff can help you search for literature, choosing relevant sources, setting up search alerts, referencing and managing your citations.
You can call or send them an email, or make an appointment for a one-on-one consultation.
