Help on Finding a Book , using the Advanced Search facility

Explanation of the Book Availability codes

How to use the The Order Process , details of Shipping options and Returns

On the Quick Search page enter the keywords of a title into the text box and click the [Book Search] button or the ENTER key on your keyboard. The searching process ignores words with fewer than 3 letters, so for example if you entered "Right Thing to do" the search actually just uses "Right Thing".

The search is case-insensitive, so "RIGHT THING" and "right thing" are equivalent.

The search engine does not check spelling so if you are unsure on how a name is spelt try a different spelling.

When a search is completed you are shown a list of titles which bear a close relevance to your search request.

In many cases there will be more than one result, for searches with many results you can use the page scroll controls at the bottom of the list to move to the "Next" or "Previous" page. In addition you can move to the "First" or "Last" page of results. The search results are limited to a maximum of 1,000 titles at any one time.

Due to the limitations of the computer screen not all of the title or the author may be visible, to see more information just "hover" the mouse over the title or author.

The search results are listed in the order of relevance of the words entered, this may produce a large number of "matches" if the words entered are not that specific. For example if you entered just the word "law" this would produce over 1 million titles!

If the search produced too many results and you could not find the title you were looking for you will need to refine the search criteria. You can go back to the Quick Search page and add extra words to specify the title or alternatively you can use the Advanced Search feature.

TIP: If you know the ISBN number of the book you want then just type that into the search text box.

TIP: To see more information on a book click on the title in the search results page

In order to refine the search further it is best to use the Advanced Search feature, this allows you to enter more specific information to more easily find the book and also allows you to change the order of the results.

Title: Enter the keywords of the title (see Finding a Book to read more about the search methods)

Author: Enter the name of the author or authors. It is best to use just the surnames, so for example a book by "Gerda Falkner, Oliver Treib, Miriam Hartlapp, Simone Leiber" you could just enter "Falkner,  Treib". You can use commas or spaces to separate the names.

Note that Editors and Illustrators are also included within the Author: search field, so you could for example enter an author name and an illustrator name.

Keywords: These search for specific words within the description information about the book. So for example you could refine the search on a title with the word "Law" by including "The European Commission" in the keywords: search.

Subject: Most books are categorised with subject areas, you can use this field to narrow the search to a specific subject area. For example if you wanted a history book with a title that contained the word "King" then enter "king" into the title: and "history" into the Subject:

ISBN: Enter the 10 digit long ISBN number

Publisher: Enter the keyword(s) of the publisher, please note that many books are published by different publishers in different countries.

Sort By: This allows you to change the order in which the results are shown, you can sort by price, title, author or publication date.

Show: In addition you can select if the search results contain all books or just those currently in stock.

There are five levels of availability which are indicated by the "Availability Status" on the detailed book information page (click on the book title in the search results page).

 

Despatch Timeframe	"Availability Status" examples
Immediate	In stock and available now.
3-10 days	Available now from Print on Demand service. Stocked by Publisher available for ordering.
5-30 days	Currently out of stock, but available to order. Available for order from the publishers.
Check back in 2-4 weeks (or after availability date)	Temporally Out Of Print, orders not accepted. Not Yet Published, available from 29/09/2005. Being re-printed, not available for ordering yet.
Not applicable	Not available for ordering. Out of Print.

Print on demand books typically take an extra 3 days for a paperback and up to 10 days for a hardback.

We update the availability information every hour.

If you cannot find the book you are looking for then we can usually get a hard to find book, please send us the details using the Contact Us page.

You can add books to your shopping basket (by clicking Buy in the search results page or clicking the [Add to Basket] button in the detailed search page. If a book is not available to be ordered then you will be prevented from adding it to the shopping basket.

Please note that some books are prevented by copyright law etc. to be shipped to certain countries and thus will be removed from the basket.

When you are ready to complete your purchase go to the Checkout, here you can specify the shipping method and options, select your payments options and enter your details.

When you have completed your purchase you will receive an email informing you of the transaction, this forms your receipt.

If your book is delayed then you will receive emails on a regular basis keeping you informed of progress, you can at any point decide that you wish to cancel (follow the instructions within the email).

The quickest way to receive your book is to use your credit card in the Checkout page, this is a very secure website (see the information about credit card protection in the Terms & Conditions page.

At the checkout stage you also have the option to pay by cheque, this needs to be drawn on a UK bank in UK Pound Sterling funds.

If you wish to pay using an alternative means such as bank wire transfer, Pay-Pal etc. then please Contact Us

If you purchase a large number of books and wish to open an account please Contact Us

We use a combination of local mail services and international couriers, the actual shipping method depends on the location of the warehouse compared to the delivery destination and also the weight of the package.

There are usually two speed options for delivery, Priority & Standard, this is selectable in the Shopping Basket page.

You can view the shipping rates and speeds for each book by clicking on the Rates & Speeds link on the detailed book description page (you can see this by clicking on the title in the search results page).

If you are dissatisfied for any reason with any product you may return your purchase within 30 days for a full refund of the purchase price. Please note that the product must arrive at our warehouse in the same condition as shipped.

We will refund shipping costs (purchase and reasonable return costs) if the product was not as described or faulty.

Certain products may contain electronic media items, if the seal is broken on these items they cannot be returned unless faulty.

Non delivery or damage during the delivery process must be reported to us within 14 days (of the expected delivery date).