Help for teachers 
| Help for parents and community
Help with using search effectively
TaLe provides access to selected learning resources for research activities and independent study by search.
Starting a search on TaLe is easy. Simply type one or more keywords, the words or phrase that best describe the resources you want to find, into the Search box and hit the Enter key or click on the search button.
In response, TaLe produces a results page: a list of resource descriptions related to your search terms, with the most relevant resource appearing first. You can sort these results by recency or relevance.
Click a title to open the Resource Access Page which contains more information. From this page you can view or download the resource which will open in a new window.
Capitalisation
TaLe searches are not case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for 'ned kelly', and 'Ned Kelly' will all return the same results.
Phrases
TaLe treats all keyword searches that contains more than one search term first as a phrase and then as separate words. There is no need to use quotation marks.
Automatic "AND" queries
By default, TaLe only returns pages that include all of your search terms. There is no need to include "AND" between terms.
Found too much?
Try using additional keywords, e.g. Use 'human body nervous system' rather than just 'human body'.
Found too little?
Try using different words. e.g. for information on 'gold rush' try also 'Australian history', 'immigrants' or 'settlement'.
This is what happens when you use keyword search:
- TaLe search looks for resource records that contain the words you enter as a phrase and then looks for resource records containing all the words. All records found are displayed in search results with phrase matches first.
e.g. A search for "Patagonian history" will first look for Patagonian history and then Patagonian AND history. - If no resource records match your search words TaLe spell checks the words and suggests a possible match.
e.g. A search for "Patagonian herstory" will display suggestion “Did you mean Patagonian history?“ and will display results if you click on the suggestion. - If no possible spelling matches are found that match your search words in a specific resource group TaLe will give you the option to extend your search to all resources.
e.g. A search for "Patagonian history" in secondary will display a request: "Your search found no matching records in Secondary resources for this keyword. Do you want to expand your search to all resources?" - If no resource records match your all of your search words in All resources the TaLe attempts to match any of the words in your search query to any resource.
e.g. A search for "Patagonian history" in all resources will look for Patagonian OR history in resource records with the message: "The results below use ANY of your search terms."
Tale search looks for resource for all ages but you can choose which age group you want to search from the list next to the search box. You can choose:
- Ages 4-9 Early learning years
- Ages 10-15 Middle years
- Ages 16+ Senior years
- All resources
The menus that appear below the Search box let you narrow your search to specific curriculum options.
If you have selected a Primary or Secondary group you can search by: one or more Learning areas; and by one or more Stages of learning.
If you have selected a TAFE group you can search by: one or more Teaching areas; and by one or more Qualification levels.
Once you know the basics of TaLe search, you can use a range of search options to make more precise searches and get more useful results.
Clicking on the show advanced options gives you more ways to search. You can:
- select a one or more from the Featured collections list
- select a learning resource type
- find resources by year of publication.
