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Search help

searching the contents of the pandora archive using Trove

You can do full text searching of the contents of the PANDORA Archive using the National Library's Trove discovery service.

You can search Trove either using the search box that appears on all PANDORA pages (includng this one, see above); or using the Trove Archived Websites (1996 - now) search page.

When using the search box on PANDORA pages you will be taken to the Trove website to view the search results. When you click on a search result you will be returned to the PANDORA website.

The following search options will work using the search box on PANDORA pages or in Trove.

Basic Searching

On all PANDORA pages there is a single search box in which you can enter search keywords and phrases. You can simply enter the term(s) or phrase(s) you wish to search for or you can enter search terms or phrases together with search modifiers such as Boolean operators, proximity operators, wildcards and field limits.

Keyword (Boolean) Searching

To search keywords just enter the words you wish to search. The default Boolean operator for keyword searching is AND. You do not need to type this operator as it is the default. So, if you search using the words hide cheek the result will be pages which include both those words. If you wish to use other Boolean operators you need to type them in using capital letters, i.e. OR, NOT

Phrase Searching

To search for a phrase enclose the phrase in double quotations marks, e.g. “hide and seek” will return pages which include the phrase hide and seek. Note that in this case 'and' does not function as a Boolean operator as it is within a phrase and is in lower case letters.

You can combine phrases with other phrases or keywords using Boolean operators.

Proximity Operators

To use the proximity operator enclose the search phrase in double quotation marks followed by a tilde (~) and the number of allowed intervening words. For example, e.g. “hide cheek”~2 will return pages with the words hide and cheek in a phrase within two words of each other, such as 'hide and cheek', 'hide and the cheek', 'cheek to hide'.

Wildcard Searches

Wildcard searching includes single character wildcard searching using the question mark symbol (?) and multiple character wildcard searching using the asterisk symbol (*).

The single character wildcard search looks for matching terms with the single character replaced. For example, the search te?t will return matching pages with the words test or tent or text.

The multiple character wildcard search looks for zero or more characters. For example the search test* will return matching pages with the terms test or tests or testing.