The Russell Bookshop Search

To help you find a particular book in our catalogue, we have given you the ability to search for it by typing in a word or some words from the title of the book, or from the authors name, or related to the subject matter of the book. You can also decide to restrict your search to within a particular price range or only to fiction or non-fiction books or to books about New Zealand or by New Zealanders.

How to make a Search

To make a search, simply type one or two words into the appropriate textbox and click on the Search ( ) button. For example, say you want to find a book that was written by Alan Duff. In the Search by Author: textbox you would type duff and then click on the Search button. Search by Author :          As you can see, whether words are written in small letters or capital letters is unimportant. The more words you type in the narrower your search will be. This means that you will find less books but the books you do find may be closer to what you want. However, I advise that you type in only one or maybe two words initially, as there is also the possibility of narrowing the search more than has been allowed for. For example, say you wanted a book by Raymond E Feist, so you typed that into the Search by Author text box, as below. Search by Author :          However, in the list, or database, of books that you are searching, the author is only listed as Raymond Feist. What would happen is that your search would produce no results, because it could find no phrase that matched yours exactly. On the other side of the coin, say you typed in Feist instead, Search by Author :          then your search would come up with a result, and the result would be any books listed as being by Raymond Feist (or anybody other author listed with Feist somewhere in their name), because the database would be able to match the word Feist to the Feist in Raymond Feist. Also remember that as well as searching by author you can also search by title and keyword/subject. The keyword/subject search enables you to look for books within a certain subject area. For example, say I wanted only books about Ireland. I could type that into the Keyword/Subject textbox and click the Search button, as below. Subject/Keyword :            Then, when I pressed the Search button, books that have been categorised as being related to Ireland will be found.

Refining your search

- To restrict your search to within a certain price range, simply select a price range from the list of possible price ranges like the one below. If it is a drop-down list or menu, then you can click on the small down pointing arrow to show you a full list of possibilities to select from. Price Range:                    All Prices Between $10 and $20 Between $20 and $50 Between $50 and $100 Between $100 and $200 Less than $10 Less than $20 Less than $50 Less than $100 More than $10 More than $20 More than $50 More than $100 As you can see, if left alone it will search for books of any price. - To restrict your search only to fiction (made up books such as novels) on non-fiction (true books such as dictionaries or biographies), the process is very similar. Simply select your choice from the list of choices, as below. Fiction or Non-Fiction?  Both Fiction Non Fiction If left untouched the search will be of both fiction and non-fiction books. - To restrict your search only to books by New Zealanders or about New Zealand, click the checkbox like the one below to select that option. NZ Books Only?              Then, when the search is done you will only be shown New Zealand books that match the other criteria given when you submitted your search. You can also refine your search further by putting words or phrases in multiple textboxes. For example, say you wanted to find a novel by Raold Dahl. Then, you would type novel in the Keyword/Subject textbox and Dahl or Raold Dahl in the Search by Author textbox, as seen below. Search by Author :          Subject/Keyword :          This would produce all the novels written by Raold Dahl that are available. If you were to simply typed in Dahl you would get a list of all books availiable from Raold Dahl (including childrens books).

The Search Results

After you make a search you will get a list of books matching your search, such as that below. Search Results Title Author Price Fiction/Non NZ Book? Food in a Minute Allyson Gofton $24.95 Non Fiction Yes Food in a Minute 2 Alyson Gofton $24.95 Non Fiction Yes After this appears, you can click on More Info to get a description of the book or a cover photo, if there is one. If you wish, you can also add it directly to your Books n toys shopping cart (which will accept credit card payment over a secure connection) by clicking on Buy It. To find out more about the shopping cart you might look at the shopping cart help page. At the bottom of the search page you will see a set of links much like the ones below. Results 1 - 5 of 5 Go to page:1 Search Again Powered by Webteacher's Webdata Results 1 - 15 of 22 tells you that there are 22 books which match your search, only 15 of which are being currently displayed. Go to Page: 1 2 lets you go to another page of books that match your search results if your search produced more books than will fit on a single page. The books are sorted alphabetically by title, so the first pages in the list include books that begin with letters towards the beginning of the alphabet. Search Again takes you back to the book search page, where you can make a different search. Webdata by Webteacher is the technology behind the Books n Toys book search. I hope this information has been useful to you and I hope that the Books n Toys search helps you find the book you're looking for.