Important: When doing a search, the more specific your search terms are, the more relevant the results will be. Like all Internet search engines, using general search terms on VLib (e.g. “theology” or “bible”) may produce many, MANY pages of results (hits).
a) Simple Search
This is the quick route to finding information. A simple search will prompt VLib to use the default search criteria (i.e. Title, Subject, Author and Contents fields) for records that match your search term(s) and display them in a hits list.
- On the VLib main menu, click on the Search option to access the Search database screen
- In the Search box, enter your search term(s)
- Hit the Enter key or click on the Search button to begin the search
- The search function is not case-sensitive but must match punctuation and spelling.
b) Truncated Search
If you can only remember parts of the title, author’s name or subject, doing a truncated search will help you find all the records that partly match your search term(s). This function works both on the Simple Search and Advanced Search functions.
- On the VLib main menu, click on the Search option to access the Search database screen
- In the Search box, enter your partial search term(s) with an asterisk (*) after the term, e.g. Search for terms beginning with child by typing child*. Hits will include child, children, childish, child’s, etc.
- Press the Enter key or click on the Search button to begin the search