Bibliopoly

1.1: Author

Words entered in this field will be sought in the author index of the Bibliopoly database. If you enter more than one word, only books that offer matches for all your words will appear. The order in which you enter the words, and their position within the author field of the data, do not matter.

The asterisk functions as a "wild card": "pop*" as a search term will find all words in the author index beginning with the letters "pop". Alexander Pope, Karl Popper, and Pope Gregory IX would all appear.

No search field is case sensitive. Accents and other diacritics are ignored in searching, and ligatures are expanded. "Brontë" and "Bronte" will find each other as well as themselves, as will "Æschylus" and "Aeschylus". For this reason, please do not use alphabetical notations instead of diacritics. For example, do not insert an "e" instead of an umlaut. If you are looking for a "Müller", your search term can be "Müller" or "Muller", but do not use "Mueller", which will only find other Muellers. Hyphenated search terms are treated as separate words.

If your search words are present in our multilingual dictionary of author names, matches will be sought for their forms in the other Bibliopoly languages, and in Latin.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.2: Title

The title search field works on the same basis as the author field, except that it is not assisted by a multilingual dictionary.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.3: Imprint details

Booksellers differ in the amount of information they provide in the imprint field, but this field should enable you to search for a place of publication, a publisher, or a printer. If your search terms are recognized by our multilingual dictionary of place names, matches will be sought not just for your search terms, but for equivalent search terms in the other Bibliopoly languages, and in Latin. The dictionary will also include the names of some publishers and printers.

In other respects this search field functions on the same basis as the author field.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.4: Year of publication (date-range)

This facility restricts your search to books published within a certain period. Enter the two years limiting your date range - in their full 4-digit form - in the two boxes provided. If you place a year in the first box and nothing in the second box, you will find only books published in that year. If you place a year in the second box and nothing in the first box, you will find books published up to and including that year.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.5: Language

If you wish to see books written in a certain language, select that language from this drop-down menu. Note that the menu does not refer to the language the book is catalogued in, but to the language(s) of its text. Translations are likely to be listed under both relevant languages.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.6: "Any word" search

Words entered here will be sought in the entire database (i.e. it is the kind of search sometimes referred to as a "keyword" search). In other respects it functions as does the author field, except that it is not assisted by a multilingual dictionary. Multilingual searching for content is best performed by means of the category field.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.7: Category

This facility searches for books of a certain category. We have provided a hierarchical system of broad categories divided into narrow categories. Most of them pertain to the content of the book, but there are some (in "Specialist collecting categories and bibliography") that cover its physical aspects. You can opt to see books in a category by selecting it from the category menu on the right-hand side of the screen. The operation of this system is described in section 2 of the main help page

Click here to return to the main help page

1.8: Currency

Books on Bibliopoly are priced by the bookseller in his currency of choice. We display that price, and also an approximation into your choice of US Dollars (the default setting), GB Pounds, or Euros. Please select your preferred currency from the currency menu. We must stress that our approximation is intended as a very rough guide only and constitutes no undertaking on the part of the bookseller to accept that price in that currency.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.9: Price Range

This facility limits your search to books priced within a certain range. It operates in the currency stipulated by you in the currency menu (set initially to US Dollars), so books priced in other currencies are included or excluded on the basis of their approximate price in your chosen currency. If you stipulate an upper limit only, you will be shown books priced up to that limit, and if you stipulate a lower limit only, you will be shown books priced upwards of that limit.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.10: Upload date

If you regularly search for the same kinds of books on Bibliopoly, you may wish only to see books recently added to the database. This menu allows you to choose only to see books uploaded within the last week, two weeks, or month.

Click here to return to the main help page

1.11: Display options

The display menu offers a sequence of options for the number of books displayed per results page. You may also choose the type of description you would like to see: "long" gives you the full cataloguing of each book your search finds, "short" gives you a more concise list.

Click here to return to the main help page