Here are a few ways to get more relevant results...
Use quotation marks around phrases.
EXAMPLE:
“saint patrick” will retrieve… The Life of Saint Patrick by Quentin James
saint patrick will retrieve…The Geology of Mount Saint Helens by Patrick Pringle
Use a capitalized OR to search for different possible words or phrases.
EXAMPLE:
irish OR celtic will retrieve results that have either the word Irish or Celtic in them.
Use parentheses to specify the order of how words are searched.
EXAMPLE:
(irish OR celtic OR ireland) AND history will retrieve results that contain the word history and contain either the word Irish, Celtic, or Ireland.
Use an asterisk (*) at the end of a root word to find results with variant endings.
EXAMPLE:
histor* will retrieve history, historical, historian, etc.
Use the Advanced Search screen to search for keywords in a title, subject, author etc.