How to Use OneSearch

Using Wildcards & Truncation in OneSearch

Wildcards are special characters used in searches to represent unknown or variable characters. They help broaden your search and find variations of terms, including plurals and different spellings. Wildcards are useful for improving your search efficiency by discovering resources that do not match exact-terms, as well as saving you time from performing multiple similar searches. 

The most common wildcards are

• * (asterisk): represents any number of characters that come after where the asterisk is applied
  • For example searching for 'librar*' will retrieve results containing the words 'library,' 'libraries,' 'librarianship,' or 'librarians'
  • Also known as truncation
• ? (question mark): represents variations of a single character
  • For example, searching for 'wom?n' will retrieve results containing the words 'woman' or 'women'

Video Tutorial

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to the BC Library homepage
2. Scroll down to the Research section
3. Click Find books and more with OneSearch
   • To fully access materials, be sure to login with your BC credentials before proceeding
4. Identify keywords for your search and consider possible variations of these keywords
   • For example, 'library,' 'libraries,' and 'librarians' or 'gray' and 'grey' (British spelling)
5. Choose appropriate wildcards for your keywords
   • * for multiple characters
   • ? for single characters
6. Apply the wildcard to your search terms
   • At the end: librar* for 'library,' 'libraries,' 'librarianship,' or 'librarians'
   • Within the term: wom?n for 'woman' or 'women'
7. Click the search button or press Enter to see your results
8. Review and filter your results as needed

Recommendations:

1. Wildcards are not universal across all databases. Some databases like EBSCOhost or Oracle have their own database-specific wildcards
2. Do not hesitate to contact a librarian for more information regarding database-specific wildcards!