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Search Tips
Important! Please read this information before you start searching…
- A record shows information about an item that the library owns.
- An item can be a book, CD, magazine, or a group of any of these.
- Select location is used to find the items in a library close to
you, or leave the default to search the entire collection. Click on the drop down
to choose a location.
Searching by Author, Subject, Title,
ISBN number, Keyword and Advanced Search:
- Author Search [ex. Angelou, M.]
Use this method to find records for items if you know the correct spelling of
the author's last name and first initial.
Click the Author link, enter last name, first initial into the
Search for box and see matching items come up for that name.
HINT: If you're unsure of the spelling, scan the list that does appear
- you may find the correct spelling and matching items in the list.
- Title Search [ex. Kitchen god's wife]
Use this method to find records for items if you know the exact title.
Click the Title link, enter the title words in exact order into the
Search for box and see all items with a title that match what you want
to find.
HINT: If library only has one match one record will display. If the
library has none or more than one a list of titles will display;
choose a title from that list.
- Subject Search [ex. "depression"]
Use this method to find items using an "official" library label.
(This will result in a smaller amount of on-target items than keyword
searching.)
Click the Subject link, enter a Subject word into the Search
for box and see all items that have officially been labeled by the library with
that word.
HINT: Exact official subject words are often strange - try various
words for searches or click on the suggested "official" subjects that
come up; they appear as hyperlinks on the list.
- Keyword Search [ex. "computer programming"]
Use this method to find items when you are unsure of an official subject word
or when you don't know an exact title.
Click the Keyword link, enter a word or a phrase into the Search
for box and view a large list of items that have that word or phrase
somewhere in each record. HINT: Keyword searching does an exact match of a
phrase.
HINT: Too many records? Use "Advanced" searching to make a
search more specific.
- Advanced Search
Use this method to find items when you don't know exact titles, names
or spellings; find items by language, date, or material type
(CD, Book, cassette, etc.) and find items by using combinations of
words.
Click the Advanced link. Enter a word or phrase into the
Words
box. You can change the language, date or material type
by clicking on the arrow buttons. After pressing the Enter button, view a
list of items that match the choices you entered.
HINT: To see items for records with more than one topic, combine words
with (and), (or), (&) ( not). HINT: To see
items for records when you are unsure of a spelling or ending use an asterisk in
the search word, (e.g. Wom*n to find women, woman, or womyn), (e.g. child* to
find child, children, childless).
More Search Techniques
Boolean Searches
Boolean searching can be used in conjunction with keyword and
advanced searching to better target your searches. You can construct search
"statements" to narrow the scope of your search results. The principles of Boolean searching are defined below.
ADJACENCY
Multiple words are usually used as one phrase. For example, search
"United States Supreme Court" or "New York City Council". To search multiple words not as a phrase see Operators (below).
TRUNCATION
Words may be right-hand truncated using an asterisk. Use a single asterisk *
to truncate from 1-3 characters. Truncation is helpful when you don't remember
the correct spelling of a long name or subject. Example: fyodor dost**
to get works by or about Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
OPERATORS
Use "and" and "or" between words to broaden the search. Use
"and not" to exclude words. Parentheses group words together when using
Boolean operators. Examples: large print and mystery, baseball and
biography, (annotated bibliography) and child*, (alaska or canada) and (adventure and not vacation).
PROXIMITY
Use "near" to specify words close to each other, in any order. Use "within X"
(where X equals the amount of words between the words) to specify terms that
occur within a certain # words frin each other in the record. Examples:
California near university, america within 3 econom*.
FIELDS
Specify fields to search using field abbreviation. Fields available for this
database are a: (author), t: (title), d: (subject), and N: (note.) Examples:
(a:twain) and (t:huck*), (a:united and a:states), and (d:handicapped or d:disabled).
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