Author Searching

When searching by Author enter as much or as little of the Author’s name as you like. All items written by an Author whose name begins with the words you have entered will be retrieved.

For example:

If you enter the name ‘west, david’ the following Authors will be retrieved.

West, David
West, David A
West, David Alexander
West, David Andrew

If you only wish to retrieve titles by the Author David West simply enter ‘west, david’ followed by the vertical bar character ‘|’ (eg. west, david|).

If you are unsure of an Author’s name try a Keyword search instead.

Note: In some cases, an Author may have one or more pseudonyms (ie. a name adopted by the Author to conceal his/her identity). If you search for an Author with one or more pseudonyms, the system may present you with a link to view titles listed under each of the Author’s alternate names.

Points to consider when entering your search:

• When searching for items by an individual always enter the Author’s last name first, for example, Shakespeare, William.
• When searching for items by an organization always enter the name of the organization in full, for example, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Do not enter the acronym for an organization (eg. ABC).
• Author’s names may be entered in uppercase, lowercase or mixed case.
• If an item has numerous Authors you may retrieve the item by entering any of the Authors names.
• Any apostrophes in the Author’s name will be removed.
• If an ampersand (&) is included an Author’s name it will be treated as if the word “and” is spelled out.
• Most punctuation marks in an Author’s name will be treated as a space.
• Repeated spaces in an Author’s name will be treated as a single space.

To repeat an Author search you had conducted earlier without having to re-enter your search:

• select the down arrow appearing to the right of the ‘Search History’ box that appears at the top of the search results screen; then
• select the search you wish to repeat and the results of the search will automatically display.

What to do if your search was unsuccessful

• Your search may have been unsuccessful because the order in which you entered the first and last names was incorrect. If your search retrieves no results a message similar to the following will appear approximately half way down the search results page giving you the option to repeat your search with the first and last names reversed.
  For example:
  Your entry william, shakespeare would be here ----- Change search to shakespeare, william.

• Check the words which display in the search box at the top of the search results screen to ensure that no “typos” or spelling mistakes were made when the search was entered. If this has occurred, simply correct the words which display in the search box and then select the ‘Search’ button which displays to it’s right.
• If your search is still unsuccessful try a Keyword search instead.

More tips on searching are available here.