Looking for books in the CELA or Bookshare collection only?

Use the search filter for Collection to select whether you see results in the CELA collection, the Bookshare collection or both. Search defaults to search the CELA collection only. You must have a proof of disability form on file to access Bookshare titles.

Looking for books by a specific author or title?

Enter the author and/or book title into the Search field at the top of the page and press ENTER.

Looking for a genre or category?

You can browse by category if you would like to browse titles by genre or category. The most popular categories appear at the top of the page and the rest of the categories appear further down.

Too many results?

Use the search filters on the search results page to narrow down your search to your preferred language, formats, categories, audience, date added or year published. Select the Jump to filters link to get to them quickly.

For example, if you are looking for a biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, you could search "Lucy Maud Montgomery," navigate to the Non-Fiction filter and then select Biography in the drop-down menu. The page would refresh with your newly updated search results.

How do I filter synthetic audio books out of my search results?

To only get search results for human-narrated audio:

1. Select My Account.
2. On the My Account page, select Search preferences.
3. In the Format section, select Human-narrated audio.
   Note: Bookshare mostly offers synthetic narration. Selecting Bookshare and Human-narrated audio would cause very few search results to appear, which is why we recommend leaving the Collection options unselected.
4. Select Save.

When you find a book you would like to read, make sure that you select the DAISY audio version of book in order to get human-narrated audio.

How do I set up my search preferences?

See the My Account help page for instructions on setting up your search preferences.

No results after setting your search preferences?

Selecting some combination of search preferences may give you no results. For example, if you choose Magazines and any reading level, no results will appear. If you choose Bookshare and Human-narrated, few results will appear because the Bookshare collection mostly offers synthetic narration.

Looking for specific formats?

Select the Jump to filters link and then navigate to the Formats filter. Select your format in the drop-down menu. The search page will refresh and only show results in the format you selected.

Looking for details about the narrator of a CELA title?

On the search results page, select the book title link for the book that interests you. The details page for that book will open. Information about the narrator of the book is available in the Audio details for CELA title section.

Looking for information about a braille CELA title?

If you're looking for details about a braille title, such as volumes, braille code or braille producer, select the book title link on the search results page. The page for the book will open. You can find information about the braille title in the Braille details for CELA title section.

What if CELA doesn't have it?

We love to get suggestions! Use our suggest a title form.

No results after doing an advanced search for a certain category/genre?

See the Browse by category page or the filters on the Search page for a list of categories/genres you can search by. For example, instead of searching for “mystery,” search for “mysteries,” as CELA lists “mysteries” plurally as a genre.

What Boolean search operators are supported in an advanced search?

Advanced search supports the following Boolean operators:

• AND
• OR
• NOT

Please note that basic search does not support Boolean operators.

How can I exclude certain words from showing up in my advanced search?

You can use Boolean operators to exclude results that you do not want. For example, you can search for Lucy Maud Montgomery materials other than Anne of Green Gables:

montgomery AND NOT gables

You can use parentheses to combine Boolean search strings:

montgomery AND NOT (gables OR avonlea)

How do I get results for either one of my search terms in an advanced search?

By default, all the words you enter are considered in a search.

You can allow either one of several words by using the OR operator in all caps within an advanced search. For example:

guide OR manual

You can use parentheses to combine an OR search with another term. For example:

(guide OR manual) AND sewing

For more information about advanced search, see the Advanced search page.