diff --git a/model/Notebook.py b/model/Notebook.py
index feafb08..0207ad6 100644
--- a/model/Notebook.py
+++ b/model/Notebook.py
@@ -103,13 +103,20 @@ class Notebook( Persistent ):
   def sql_load_notes( self, start = 0, count = None ):
     """
     Return a SQL string to load a list of all the notes within this notebook.
+    Note: If the database backend is SQLite, a start parameter cannot be given without also
+    providing a count parameter.
     """
     if count is not None:
       limit_clause = " limit %s" % count
     else:
       limit_clause = ""
 
-    return "select id, revision, title, contents, notebook_id, startup, deleted_from_id, rank, user_id from note_current where notebook_id = %s order by revision desc%s offset %s;" % ( quote( self.object_id ), limit_clause, start )
+    if start:
+      offset_clause = " offset %s" % start
+    else:
+      offset_clause = ""
+
+    return "select id, revision, title, contents, notebook_id, startup, deleted_from_id, rank, user_id from note_current where notebook_id = %s order by revision desc%s%s;" % ( quote( self.object_id ), limit_clause, offset_clause )
 
   def sql_load_non_startup_notes( self ):
     """
@@ -168,7 +175,7 @@ class Notebook( Persistent ):
     return "select id, revision, title, contents, notebook_id, startup, deleted_from_id, rank, user_id from note_current where notebook_id = %s and lower( title ) = lower( %s );" % ( quote( self.object_id ), quote( title ) )
 
   @staticmethod
-  def sql_search_notes( user_id, first_notebook_id, search_text ):
+  def sql_search_notes( user_id, first_notebook_id, search_text, database_backend ):
     """
     Return a SQL string to perform a full-text search for notes within notebooks readable by the
     given user whose contents contain the given search_text. This is a case-insensitive search.
@@ -176,29 +183,44 @@ class Notebook( Persistent ):
     @type search_text: unicode
     @param search_text: text to search for within the notes
     """
-    # strip out all search operators
-    search_text = Notebook.SEARCH_OPERATORS.sub( u"", search_text ).strip()
+    if database_backend == Persistent.POSTGRESQL_BACKEND:
+      # strip out all search operators
+      search_text = Notebook.SEARCH_OPERATORS.sub( u"", search_text ).strip()
 
-    # join all words with boolean "and" operator
-    search_text = u"&".join( Notebook.WHITESPACE_PATTERN.split( search_text ) )
+      # join all words with boolean "and" operator
+      search_text = u"&".join( Notebook.WHITESPACE_PATTERN.split( search_text ) )
 
-    return \
-      """
-      select id, revision, title, contents, notebook_id, startup, deleted_from_id, rank, user_id, null,
-             headline( drop_html_tags( contents ), query ) as summary from (
+      return \
+        """
+        select id, revision, title, contents, notebook_id, startup, deleted_from_id, rank, user_id, null,
+               headline( drop_html_tags( contents ), query ) as summary from (
+          select
+            note_current.id, note_current.revision, note_current.title, note_current.contents,
+            note_current.notebook_id, note_current.startup, note_current.deleted_from_id,
+            rank_cd( search, query ) as rank, note_current.user_id, null, query
+          from
+            note_current, user_notebook, to_tsquery( 'default', %s ) query
+          where
+            note_current.notebook_id = user_notebook.notebook_id and user_notebook.user_id = %s and
+            note_current.deleted_from_id is null and
+            query @@ search order by note_current.notebook_id = %s desc, rank desc limit 20
+        ) as sub;
+        """ % ( quote( search_text ), quote( user_id ),
+                quote( first_notebook_id ) )
+    else:
+      # TODO: use SQLite's FTS (full text search) support instead
+      return \
+        """
         select
-          note_current.id, note_current.revision, note_current.title, note_current.contents,
-          note_current.notebook_id, note_current.startup, note_current.deleted_from_id,
-          rank_cd( search, query ) as rank, note_current.user_id, null, query
+          note_current.*
         from
-          note_current, user_notebook, to_tsquery( 'default', %s ) query
+          note_current, user_notebook
         where
           note_current.notebook_id = user_notebook.notebook_id and user_notebook.user_id = %s and
           note_current.deleted_from_id is null and
-          query @@ search order by note_current.notebook_id = %s desc, rank desc limit 20
-      ) as sub;
-      """ % ( quote( search_text ), quote( user_id ),
-              quote( first_notebook_id ) )
+          lower( note_current.contents ) like %s
+          order by note_current.notebook_id = %s desc, rank desc limit 20
+        """ % ( quote( user_id ), quote_fuzzy( search_text ), quote( first_notebook_id ) )
 
   @staticmethod
   def sql_search_titles( notebook_id, search_text ):
@@ -220,11 +242,11 @@ class Notebook( Persistent ):
       where
         notebook_id = %s and
         deleted_from_id is null and
-        title ilike %s
+        lower( title ) like %s
       order by
         revision desc limit 20;
       """ % ( quote( notebook_id ), 
-              quote_fuzzy( search_text ) )
+              quote_fuzzy( search_text.lower() ) )
 
   def sql_highest_note_rank( self ):
     """
diff --git a/model/Persistent.py b/model/Persistent.py
index 61b00ad..5e8ebc9 100644
--- a/model/Persistent.py
+++ b/model/Persistent.py
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ from pytz import utc
 
 
 class Persistent( object ):
+  POSTGRESQL_BACKEND = 0
+  SQLITE_BACKEND = 1
+
   """
   A persistent database object with a unique id.
   """
diff --git a/model/User.py b/model/User.py
index 3d8d6ca..80a19f3 100644
--- a/model/User.py
+++ b/model/User.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import sha
 import random
 from copy import copy
 from Persistent import Persistent, quote
-from controller.Database import Database
 
 
 class User( Persistent ):
@@ -303,16 +302,16 @@ class User( Persistent ):
     storage for all the user's notes (including past revisions) and their uploaded files. It does
     not include storage for the notebooks themselves.
     """
-    if database_backend == Database.POSTGRESQL_BACKEND:
+    if database_backend == Persistent.POSTGRESQL_BACKEND:
       # this counts bytes for the contents of each column
       note_size_clause = "pg_column_size( note.* )"
     else:
-      # this isn't perfect, because length() counts UTF-8 characters instead of bytes
+      # this isn't perfect, because length() counts UTF-8 characters instead of bytes.
+      # some columns are left out because they can be null, which screws up the addition
       note_size_clause = \
         """
         length( note.id ) + length( note.revision ) + length( note.title ) + length( note.contents ) +
-        length( note.notebook_id ) + length( note.startup ) + length( note.deleted_from_id ) +
-        length( note.rank ) + length( note.search ) + length( note.user_id )
+        length( note.notebook_id ) + length( note.startup ) + length( note.user_id )
         """
 
     return \