A wildcard is a symbol that takes the place of an unknown character or set of characters. Commonly used wildcards are the asterisk ( * ) and the question mark ( ? ).
Depending on the software or the search engine you are using, other wildcard characters may be defined.
Wildcard characters used in our catalog are as follows:
• ? (question mark)
Use the question mark for multiple-character, wildcard searches at the beginning, middle, or end of your search terms.
• % (percent sign)
Use the percent sign for single-character wildcard searches.
Truncation allows you to search any ending on a root word.
For example, if your topic uses the word economics, then you may also want to search:The root word is econ. To truncate and search teen with any ending you would type:
econ*
The asterisk at the end of the root word tells the database to search for that word with any ending.
This expands your search to find more articles.