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Search help

Ways of searching

  1. Keywords
    You can easily search the NCSL site using keywords. Try to use discriminating terms that are likely to be found only in the documents you seek. The more words you give, the better results you'll get. Documents most relevant to your query will be presented first.

  2. Phrases
    Phrases can be entered using quotation marks, which finds words which appear adjacent to each other. Separate multiple phrases or proper names with commas, eg “leading from the middle”, “programme costs”, “Ed Balls”.

  3. Upper and lower case
    If you search using lowercase, results will match words in any case.
    For example, npqh will find matches for Npqh, NPqH, and NPQH

    If you use uppercase in your query, an exact case match is used.
    For example, a query for NPQH will only match NPQH.

Refining a search

  1. Identify a phrase
    Think of words which are likely to appear together in the document and place within double quotes:

    Before: new visions application
    After: "new visions" application

    The first query is less clear than the second - it could be referring to a new way of applying visions, as well as information about applying for the New Visions programme. The search engine would treat these two cases in distinctly different ways. By identifying "new visions" as a phrase the search engine will select pages where ‘new’ and ‘visions’ appear side by side.

  2. Add a discriminating word or phrase
    Adding a discriminating word or a phrase can also help to eliminate ambiguity in your query.

    Before: "new visions"application
    After: "new visions" application form

    You'll get more total results with the ‘after’ query but the documents displayed first will be more relevant to your query. To get less matches and an even better relevancy, use two phrases here:

    “new visions”, “application form”

  3. Capitalise when appropriate

    Before: bill gates
    After: Bill Gates

    This example, when lower case, has a variety of possible interpretations. For example, without capitalisation, bill could refer to a legal document, a bird’s beak or a person’s name. It is always a good idea to capitalise proper names.


Further information and help

If you have experience technical problems with the NCSL search, please email the NCSL help desk.