e-catalog supports 256 characters in its full bibliographic record. However, not all computers can display all 256 characters.
Transliterated Characters
The following table contains transliterated characters as well as the replacement characters to use when searching a
term containing a transliterated character.
| Special Transliterated Character Name | Replacement Character |
| Polish L (uppercase) | L |
| Polish l (lowercase) | l |
| Scandinavian O (uppercase) | O |
| Scandinavian o (lowercase) | o |
| Icelandic thorn (uppercase) | B |
| Icelandic thorn (lowercase) | b |
| D with crossbar (uppercase) | D |
| d with crossbar (lowercase) | d |
| digraph AE (uppercase) | AE |
| digraph ae (lowercase) | ae |
| ligature OE (uppercase) | OE |
| ligature oe (lowercase) | oe |
| O hook (uppercase) | O |
| o hook (lowercase) | o |
| U hook (uppercase) | U |
| u hook (lowercase) | u |
| musical flat | b |
Punctuation
When marks of punctuation are included in a search expression, e-catalog either replaces the punctuation marks with spaces,
or searches variations of the search expression containing the punctuation, or ignores the punctuation marks. To search
a punctuation mark as a literal character, enclose the expression in quotation marks.
e-catalog searches periods (.) based on how this punctuation mark displays in the search expression. If the period does not mark the end of a sentence or if the period is not used as a decimal mark within a numeral, the period is replaced with spaces. If the period is used as a decimal mark, it is not replaced with a space.
Example: Searching Expressions Containing Periods
The title Vacationland U.S.A. will be searched as the following.
VACATIONLAND U S A
The title 98.6: a novel will be searched as the following.
98.6 NOVEL
Example: Searching Expressions Containing Commas
e-catalog also replaces commas (,) within a search expression with a space.
The title Goodbye, Columbus, and Five Short Stories will be searched as the following.
GOODBYE COLUMBUS FIVE SHORT STORIES
Example: Searching Expressions Containing Hyphens
Search expressions containing hyphens (-) are searched with the hyphen included. A search without the hyphen displays words both with and without the hyphen.
The title Camp-fire Girls will be searched as the following.
CAMP-FIRE GIRLS
Only titles that include a hyphen between Camp and Fire will display. To broaden the search to include the
phrase "Camp Fire" with and without the hyphen, use the following search.
CAMP FIRE GIRLS
e-catalog ignores the circumflex (^) in search expressions.
The following table contains additional special characters. These characters do not affect searching. Some of these characters are replaced by a space; some are ignored.
| Punctuation Name | Punctuation Mark | Replaced With |
| accent | ` | space |
| ampersand | & | (ignored) |
| apostrophe | ' | (ignored) |
| asterisk | * | space |
| at (each) sign | @ | space |
| back slash | \ | (ignored) |
| brackets | [ ] | spaces |
| colon | : | space |
| exclamation point | ! | space |
| forward slash | / | space |
| number sign (pound sign, musical sharp) | # | space |
| percentage sign | % | space |
| plus | + | space |
| semicolon | ; | space |
| tilde | ~ | space |
| underscore | _ | space |
More Searching Tips
| Searching Tips | Substitution and Truncation |
| Keyword Index Synonyms | Specified Entries |
| Operators |
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