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Search Help

• Overview
• Search
• Search Results
• Advanced Search
• Search by Language
• Search by Date
• Advanced Search Tips

Overview

The Government of Canada Publications search engine lets you search through our catalogue of publications by using the Search and Advanced Search features. Search allows you to execute a simple keyword search of publications in our database; whereas Advanced Search allows you to define where to look for the keywords.

Search and Advanced Search look for records containing all of the words that you request, with the best matches for your search criteria showing up at the top of the list. For help using the advanced search features of our site, please read our Advanced Search Tips section.

Search

To use the Search feature follow these steps:

1. Use the Search link in Our Catalogue.
2. In Search For, enter your keyword(s) search criteria (keywords are not case sensitive); your search term must be at least three (3) characters.
3. Select the language(s) of the publications you want returned by using the check boxes in Language of Publication.
   • Select English to search for English and bilingual (English/French) publications.
   • Select French to search for French and bilingual (French/English) publications.
     

     Looking for languages other than French or English? Use our Search by Language feature.

4. Select View only publications available for download or order, if you are only looking for publications that are available for immediate order or download. When this search criterion is selected, publications that have an Availability Status in the list below will not be displayed:
   • Publication is listed for reference purposes only
   • Publication is temporarily out of print
   • Publication is out of print
5. Use the Search button or hit Enter on your keyboard to view the search results.

Search Results

The Search Results page will display the first twenty-five (25) records that match your search criteria. The total number of records matching your search request will be displayed on the Search Results the page. Where available, the following information will be displayed for each record:

• Title and Subtitle
• Format (paper, electronic, Braille, etc.)
• Other Formats that the publication is available in
• Catalogue Number
• Price
• Department/Agency that issued the publication
• Author
• Date
• Weekly Checklist Number
• Publication Type

A Shopping Cart will appear with publications that are available for order.

The search results are sorted by rank. You can change the sort order of your search results by selecting one of the following Sort by options on the Search Result page:

• Author
• Catalogue Number
• Department/Agency
• Title
• Rank
• Year

Select the publication title to go to our detailed Publication Information page.

If you want to change your search criteria, use the Modify this Search link. This will return you to the Search Catalogue page where your previous criteria will be displayed. You can then change your criteria and run your search again.

Advanced Search

Use the Advanced Search if you want to use more than one piece of information in your search such as Title and Author.

1. Follow the Advanced Search link to access this feature.
2. In Search Terms, enter your keyword(s) search criteria.
   • Search terms must be at least three (3) characters.
   • You must enter at least one term.
   • Search terms are not case sensitive.
3. Choose AND or OR between each Search Term.
4. You have the option to select the Format(s) of the publication.
5. You can enter a range for Year of Publication.
6. You can select English and/or French in Language of the Publication.
   • Select English to search for English and bilingual (English/French) publications.
   • Select French to search for French and bilingual (French/English) publications.

     Looking for languages other than French or English? Use our Search by Language feature.

7. Select View only publications available for download or order if you are only looking for publications that are available for immediate order or download. When this search criterion is selected, publications that have an Availability Status in the list below will not be displayed in the search results:
   • Publication is listed for reference purposes only
   • Publication is temporarily out of print
   • Publication is out of print
8. By selecting Find variations of search terms, the function will look for most variations of your search terms. For example, if you enter running as a search term, the engine will also look for runs, runner and run.
9. Use the Search button or hit Enter on your keyboard to view the search results.

Search by Language

We have a small number of publications in our catalogue that are available in languages other than English or French. Use the Search by Language feature to search for publications in a language other than English or French.

1. Go to the Search by Language page by selecting Search for other languages on the Search Publications Catalogue page or Advanced Search pages. You can also use the Search by Language link on our main menu.
2. Select the Language of the Publication you want to search for. The select list will only display languages for publications that we have included in our catalogue. If you do not see the language you are looking for, then we do not have a publication in that language.
3. Use the Search button or hit Enter on your keyboard to view the search results.

Search by Date

This feature allows you to search for all publications released on a given date or date range.

1. Select Search by Date from the main menu.
2. Enter the Release Date Range.
   • The latest date you can enter is the previous business day.
   • The longest period you can search is one year.
3. Select the Price Category you wish to have returned in your results.
4. Select the language(s) of the publications you want returned by using the check boxes in Language of Publication.
   • Select English to search for English and bilingual (English/French) publications.
   • Select French to search for French and bilingual (French/English) publications.

     Looking for languages other than French or English? Use our Search by Language feature.

5. Use the Search button or hit Enter on your keyboard to view the search results on the Search by Date Web page.
6. Select the Catalogue Number to go to our detailed Publication Information page.
7. The search results are sorted by Catalogue Number. You can change the sort order by selecting links in the column headings at the top of the search result table.

Note
The Shopping Cart will not appear with the Search by Date search results. You can access the Shopping Cart by selecting the Catalogue Number link to the Publication Information page.

Tip
Use the Last Business Day, Last Week or Last Month links on the Search by Date page to quick-fill the date range and view the search results.

Advanced Search Tips

If you are having difficulty finding the document(s) you require, you may want to consider some of the following search strategies:

1. Our search forms will look for records containing all of the words you request.

   For example, if you search by title for

   atlantic tuna

   you will only get search results with titles (or subtitles) matching both words, in any order. Search hits for this example would include: Northwest Atlantic Tuna and Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Market Review but not Atlantic Coast or The Canadian Albacore Tuna Catch and Effort Relational Database.

2. You can tell our search engine to look for any of the search terms provided by using the word OR in between your search terms.

   For example, if you search by title for

   atlantic OR tuna

   you will get search results with titles matching either atlantic or tuna or both of them. Search hits for this example would include: Atlantic Coast, The Canadian Albacore Tuna Catch and Effort Relational Database, and Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Market Review.

   Be sure to use all capital letters for the word "OR" and to include spaces in between the word "OR" and your other search terms.

3. You can tell the search engine to look for an exact match for your phrase by enclosing it in double quotation marks (").

   For example, if you search by title for

   "atlantic tuna"

   you will get search results with titles matching the phrase atlantic tuna, but not titles matching only one of the words or matching both words in a different order. Search hits for this example would include: Northwest Atlantic Tuna, but not Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Market Review or Atlantic Coast.

4. You can tell the search engine that it must exclude a term in the search results by preceding it with a minus sign (-).

   For example, if you search by title for

   tuna -atlantic

   you will get search results with titles matching tuna but not matching atlantic. Search hits for this example would include: The Canadian Albacore Tuna Catch and Effort Relational Database, but not Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Market Review or Northwest Atlantic Tuna.

   You can also obtain the same results by using the word NOT instead of using the minus sign. For the example above, you would search by title for

   tuna NOT atlantic

   Be sure to use all capital letters for the word "NOT" and to include spaces in between the word "NOT" and your other search terms.

5. Our search engine also allows for wildcard searches by using an asterisk (*) as a placeholder for one or more characters in your search request.

   For example, if you search by title for

   atlantic tu*

   you will get search results with titles matching atlantic and also matching words beginning with "tu". Search hits for this example would include: Northwest Atlantic Tuna and Recovery Strategy for the Leatherback Turtle in Atlantic Canada.

   Please note: you must use at least 3 characters (including the asterisk *) in each of your search terms. For example: car and ca* will work, but ca and c* will not.

Can't find what you're looking for?

Contact us and we'll be happy to help.