How to search for books

From anywhere onsite, you can access the search bar where you can enter a keyword, title, author or ISBN.

Searching for an item can yield large results. Once you’ve completed the first search, you can re-sort the list of items or refine the results by searching within the results using more criteria.

1. General search tips
2. How to narrow down your search results
3. How to use Advanced Search
4. How to use Boolean Search
   
   1. Boolean Search operators & symbols
   2. Boolean Search tips
   3. Boolean Search examples

• Our system finds items that match all words you enter. Start with as few search terms as possible.
• Our system finds items that match the exact spelling of your request. Capitalization won’t affect your results.
• When you find your desired item in the search results, select it to review the item details. You’ll be able to verify the item’s condition and description among other details.
• To confirm any item details that are not available, you can reach out to the seller by selecting Contact seller.
  

To narrow down your search results, try:

• Sorting results
  
  • Select the Sort By dropdown menu.
  • Select your preferred sort option. For example, you can sort by lowest price, highest price or author alphabetical.
• Refining results
  
  • Review the list of attributes, including Product Type, Condition, Free Shipping, Seller Location and more.
  • Select your desired attribute refinements.
  • To remove a refinement, select the attribute again or select All. For example, All Product Types.
• Searching within results
  
  • Select the Search within these results bar.
  • Enter keywords to further refine your results. For example, if your first search was broad, you could narrow results by specifying “Softcover” or “Biography”.
• Editing your search
  
  • Select the pencil icon within You searched for to make an edit to the terms you entered in the search bar.
  • Select Edit your search to further refine your search criteria using Advanced Search. Selecting this option will preserve your existing search terms and refinements.
• Search for items from a specific seller
  
  • Select Sellers from our site banner to browse independent sellers. Once you find a seller you’re interested in, select their name to visit their storefront and browse their items.
    
    • Our Seller Search will accept syntax including hyphen (-) or pipe (|) delimiters. However, there must be a following term or an error message will appear. For example, Bob Smith – Books or Bob Smith | Books.
  • If you’ve already added an item to your Basket from a specific seller, select the seller’s name in Basket to visit their storefront and browse their items.
  • Select Advanced Search to include or exclude specific sellers in your search results.
    

Advanced search allows you to enter specific search criteria and preferences to refine your results. It is important to note that entering too much information at one time may return no results. We recommend that you build your search step-by-step, adding or changing criteria as you go.
Search criteria can include specific terms for Author, Title, Publisher, Keywords or ISBN.

• Author: First and last name can be entered in any order. If a seller has abbreviated or accidentally misspelled an author’s name, it will not be displayed in your search results. For example, if you enter “Stephen King” and “King, Stephen” the same results will be returned, but items including “S. King” or “Steven King” will not be returned.
• Title: Full title or title portion can be entered in any order.
• Publisher: Publisher name can be entered as a search term. Sellers may use different variations of a publisher’s name. If you’re searching for results from a specific publisher, try searching different variations. For example, “Oxford University Press” or “OUP”.
• Keywords: This criteria field is a combination of all other fields. When the keyword criteria field is used, we find results against author, title, publisher and item description fields to return possible matches. It is best to be as specific as possible with this field.
• ISBN: International Standard Book Numbers can be entered in either 10- or 13-digit formats, with or without spaces or dashes. We will search for results with both the 10- and equivalent 13-digit ISBNs. Our system tries to match ISBNs to books that have been listed without one provided. We cannot guarantee correct matches. Please review item descriptions to ensure it’s the correct time before placing an order.

Search preferences can be set to consider Product Type, Condition, Binding and Attribute. You can choose to include and exclude specific Sellers and Seller locations.  You can also choose to turn on or off search features including Group Similar Results, Expand All Descriptions, Boolean Search or Books Listed Within the last 24 hours to 90 days.

Boolean allows you to perform very specific searches using any of the search criteria fields. The Keyword field is particularly useful when using Boolean as it searches across all other fields. Boolean Search is based on mathematical logic that uses "operators" to help you expand and restrict your search. It is best suited for complex search queries but is simple to use. Boolean Search can be turned on from our Advanced Search page.

• NOT (-) is given the highest precedence and is helpful for restricting your search results.
• AND (&) is given the second highest precedence and is helpful for making your search results very specific.
• OR (|) is given the third highest precedence and is helpful for expanding your search results.
• Double quotes (“”) are helpful for including an exact term in your search entry. Results will match your term in quotes exactly. For example, an “Earnest Hemingway” Author search will return items where the Author field contains that exact entry. The results will not include any items where the Author is listed as “Hemingway, Ernest”.
• Parenthesis are helpful for grouping a series of words together in the Keyword field. This will categorize your results and force the order of processing.

• If you enter multiple search terms without the use of operators, the search system will use AND to find results against your entry. For example, if you enter Stephen King, the system searches for results with Stephen AND King.
• If your search entry includes multiple operators, the search system will use the order of precedence.
• When using an operator in your search entry, there must be terms before and after the operator. For example, a valid Title Boolean search would be Twilight NOT New Moon.
• If you are searching for an item where the Title criteria includes terms like and, or, or not, put the title in double quotations, being mindful of spelling. This will help Boolean search recognize that the word is being searched for rather than being used as an operator.
• An asteriks can be used at the end of a term as a wildcard to maximize your results. For example, if you can’t recall the author JRR Tolkien’s full name, enter Tolk* in the Author field. Your results will include all listings where the author’s name starts with Tolk- and you can narrow down your results from there.