What kind of search options are there?

Simple Search
Enter one or two search terms in the text field. The query is performed through an "AND" search, and this leads to the most relevant results being displayed. So if you enter the words "dog" and "cat" into the search field, the results displayed will be ones that contain both terms. In the simple search, the full text is searched, that is, the entire contents of the document, including the table of contents/index, press commentaries, and information on the author. From the pull-down menu, select the type of media (eBook, eVideo, etc.) or search in all the types of media. If you select "Only Available Titles", you will obtain results that you can immediately borrow/download. Moreover, the "Simple Search" automatically applies a right-truncation to obtain results, so that entering "Mank" will turn up titles by “Mankell”, for example.

Advanced Search
In the case of an advanced search, you have the choice of refining your search. The restrictions applied render more accurate search results. The query is performed, as in the simple search, through an „AND“-operation; however, if you add a search term in the field "Full Text Search", the entire document, the table of contents/indeces, press commentaries, and author-related information are searched to find the term. Formal data, such as title, author, year, are NOT searched. The "fuzzy search" as a search preference can be used in order to find titles or authors where you are unsure of the correct spelling. When choosing your search preferences, you can have the results sorted in different ways, and, as with simple searches, choose to have only the available titles displayed.

Subject Areas
If you do not have an exact idea of which title you are searching for, you can also browse by using “Subject Areas”. Subject Areas contains many important broader terms that relate to a title or category. For instance, you would find an eBook on Africa with illustrations under:
Non-Fiction & Guidebooks & Travel & Adventure > > Travel Guides by Country & Region > Africa
or under
Non-Fiction & Guidebooks & Travel & Adventure > > Illustrated Books

The Subject Areas are located on the left side of the page. If you wish to search with the help of Subject Areas, you can do so by simply clicking on the relevant term. From the results displayed, you will then see how many titles there are in each individual category (the number in brackets). The media items filed under each category are also displayed there.

What information do I get on a search results list?

Initially, a results list contains only the most important data, such as title, author, year, ISBN. For each title, the level of relevance of the result is shown in bar form on the right-hand side of the page. The more filled in the bar is, the more the title you have found matches your search parameters. Additionally, you can have the results list sorted in different ways, e.g. according to popularity or the title name. The initial setting is always on "relevance".

If you want to know more about a title, click on “Details” or on the thumbnail and you will find the following details displayed: :
- Title
- Author
- Year
- Publisher
- Language
- ISBN
- Format
- File size
- Page numbers or eAudio / eVideo length
- Reading Sample
- Key Word
- Category

In addition, you will find a table of contents, information on the author, tips on online media loans and user rights as well as a rating of the title. If you want to find out which other titles by an author or publisher the eLibrary has on offer, simply click on Author or Publisher.

How can I find titles with similar content as simply and completely as possible?

For every title description, you will find keywords that are linked. By clicking on a keyword of interest to you, titles for which the same keyword applies are displayed, i.e. all items dealing with the same topic.