Search

Read the search tips below to get the most relevant search results.

Please note that only HTML documents are searched - the contents of documents in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) and Microsoft Word format (DOC) are not covered by this search.

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Search Tips

  • Expand the number of matches for a particular request by using an asterisk (*):

    Enter the asterisk * immediately (without a space) before and/or after a part of a word (for example its stem) to include different word forms in the search results.

    Ex.: cult* will return all documents containing the words 'cult', 'culture', 'cultural', 'Culturelink', etc., while *ation would find 'creation', 'education', 'communication', 'association' and so forth.

  • Restrict the search to an exact expression or term by using quotation marks (""):

    Placing a composite expression in quotation marks "" will limit the results of the search exclusively to documents containing the entire expression or the requested words in a specific order, not returning documents containing only some of the words listed.

    Ex. "cultural policy" will return only those documents which contain the compound expression, i.e. both words adjacent to each other in the given order, while results for cultural policy (without quotation marks) would include documents containing one or the other word, as well as those containing both words in arbitrary order anywhere within the document.

  • Specify the words required in the search results by using a plus sign (+):

    Enter the plus sign + immediately (without a space) before a word or composite expression (in quotation marks) which should be included in the search results.

    Ex.: council +arts will find all documents containing the word 'council' provided they also contain the word 'arts', thus returning documents concerning arts councils but not necessarily those about the British Council.

  • Specify the words not allowed in the search results by using a minus sign (-):

    Enter the minus sign - immediately (without a space) before a word or composite expression (in quotation marks) which should not be included in the search results.

    Ex.: council -arts will return all documents containing the word 'council' provided that they do not contain the word 'arts', so the results will not display documents about arts councils in general, but will include the ones concerning the British Council.

  • Search for a word or an expression in a specific part of a document:

    For the specified part of a document enter (without a space) the keyword, immediately followed by a colon and the searched word or expression (in quotation marks). The following keywords are allowed:

    • title: for the document title,
    • body: for the document body text,
    • url: for the document address,
    • desc: for the meta content description,
    • keys: for the meta keywords of the document,
    • alt: for alternative text (image description etc.).

    Ex. title:"Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa" will return all documents entitled 'Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa' (as displayed in the browser's title bar).

  • For complex search terms a combination of the operators (*), (+) and
    (-), the quotation marks ("") and the keywords may be used.
  • Distinguish between capital and small letters:

    If the search term is entered in small letters, the search results will also include documents containing the capitalized expression, but a search term starting with a capital letter will not return documents containing the expression written all in small letters.

    Ex. Euro will return all documents containing the word written with a capital E (for example at the beginning of a sentence), but will not return those containing the currency name within a sentence written with a small starting letter, while euro will find all documents containing either 'euro', 'Euro' or 'EURO'.

  • Enter multiple words to receive more refined search results or use several similar words to find a larger number of relevant documents.