next to the item in the Item Availability list.
Searching for books and other materials can be as simple or as advanced as you wish. You can simply type a word or phrase and click Go, or you can search by author, title, location, format, or other characteristics and combine search terms. You can also a search by typing a search command. You can search any resource your library provides, from the local library, library system, and network catalogs to remote libraries and subscription indexes and databases.
• “Phrase and Exact Phrase Searches”
Your library may offer either of two types of quick searching. With one type of search, you type a word or words, select a limiter if you wish, and click Go. See “Do a quick search with Limit by”. With the other type of search, you type a word or words and click a search button. See “Do a quick search with search buttons”. You may also be able to click a picture of a best-seller to launch a search for the title. See “Search from a book jacket image”.
Do a quick search with Limit by
Follow these steps to do a quick search of the library catalog from the portal page if your library offers an option to limit your search.
1. Type a word or words in the Quick Library Search box.
• If you type more than one word, your results may include materials with the words in any order. If you want to find the words in the exact order, begin the phrase with double quotation marks.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• Punctuation is usually ignored. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
• If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), the search is launched and your results include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.
2. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list. Your library may provide additional limiters, such as availability.
Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD
in the Limit by list.
Note:
Your library may provide a digital collection that you can search and access
online in the same way that you search for other materials. Materials
in the collection may include images, video clips, sound files, and
text files. If you want to restrict your search results to digital collection
materials, select Digital Collection
in the Limit by box. For information
about using digital collection search results, click User’s
Guide.
3. Click Go.
• If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.
• If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also see a Did you mean suggestion. You can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term.
Note:
You may see a more link
next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.
4. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles.
• Narrow your search results or do related searches.
• Add a title to a title list.
• Place a request for a title, or purchase a title.
For more information, click User’s Guide.
Do a quick search with search buttons
Follow these steps to do a quick search of the library catalog from the portal page if your library offers quick search buttons.
1. Type a word or words in the Quick library search box.
• If you type more than one word, your results may include materials with the words in any order. If you want to find the words in the exact order, begin the phrase with double quotation marks.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• Punctuation is usually ignored. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
2. Click a search button to start the search.
You may see any of these buttons:
• Anywhere - Looks for your text anywhere in the library catalog records.
Note:
If you type search text and press ENTER,
without clicking a search button, a keyword search starts.
• Subject - Looks for your text in the catalog’s subject descriptions. The results will include works about the subject.
• Title - Looks for your text in the titles of works in the library catalog. The results will include works with your text in the title.
• Author - Looks for your text in authors’ names in the library catalog. The results will include works by authors with your text in the author’s name.
• Series - Looks for your text in series names in the library catalog. The results will include works in series, where the series name includes your text.
• Fiction - Looks for your text anywhere in the library’s records for fiction titles.
• Nonfiction - Looks for your text anywhere in the library’s records for nonfiction titles.
If the search is successful, information about individual titles is displayed in the search results list, or you may see a list of titles, authors, subjects, or series.
Note:
If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also
see a Did you mean suggestion. You
can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term. You may also
see a more link next to the suggestion.
Click the link to see more suggestions.
3. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• If you see a group of individual titles, navigate the results list and view more information about the titles. For more information, click User’s Guide.
• If you see a list of titles, authors, subjects, or series, you can browse through the list and select a list item to see the associated titles. For more information about browsing, see “Browsing the Catalog”. Once you see the associated titles, you can view more information about each one. For more information, click User’s Guide.
Search from a book jacket image
You may see a picture of a book in the center pane of the portal page. (You may have to scroll the page down to see the picture.) The pictured book is taken from current best-seller lists, and changes every time you return to or refresh the portal page. You can search for the pictured book in the library catalog, and if the title is not found, you can ask the library to purchase it. Follow these steps to search for a title from an image on the portal page.
1. Click the book jacket image to launch the search.
If the search is successful, information about the title is displayed. If the title is in the catalog but currently unavailable, you may be able to request or purchase it. Click User’s Guide for more information.
If no matches in the catalog are found, the purchase request form appears.
2. To ask the library to purchase the title, type a note in the box, if you wish, and click Send.
The request is sent to the library by e-mail, and a confirmation message is displayed.
3. Click Library Info to return to the portal page.
The online library catalog contains thousands of records that represent titles in the catalog. Within each title record, separate fields contain specific information such as the title, author, and subject. You can search these fields for keywords (text you specify).
A keyword search in any field looks in all the search fields of the library catalog to find the keyword text. Other keyword searches narrow the search for the keyword only in the author, subject, title, or other specific fields.
Follow these steps to find titles containing your text in any field, or in a selected field, of the library catalog.
1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Keyword in the Search submenu.
2. Type the text to search for in the Keyword search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
• Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. Omit hyphens in numbers. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
• If you type more than one word, your results may include materials with the words in any order. If you want to find the words in the exact order, begin the phrase with double quotation marks.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), the search is launched and your results include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.
3. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list:
• Any Field - All the indexed information fields
• Title - Title fields
• Author - Author fields
• Subject - Subject fields
• General notes - Notes fields
• Publisher - Publisher field
• Genre - Forms or types of materials, such as science fiction, romance, biography, bibliography, or large type books
• Series - Series fields
• ISBN - International Standard
Book Number, a 13
• ISSN - International Standard
Serial Number, an 8
• LCCN - Library of Congress Control Number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results.
• Publisher No. - Publisher’s number, the unique identifier assigned to the publishers of sound recordings, video recordings, printed sheet music, and other musical works
• SuDoc - Superintendent of Documents classification number (identifier) assigned to government documents. The identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
• CODEN - Identifier for scientific and technical periodical titles. The six-character identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
• STRN - Standard technical report number (identifier) assigned according to ISO 10444 or NISO Z39.23 standards. The identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
4. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list. Your library may provide additional limiters, such as availability.
Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD
in the Limit by list.
Note:
Your library may provide a digital collection that you can search and access
online in the same way that you search for other materials. Materials
in the collection may include images, video clips, sound files, and
text files. If you want to restrict your search results to digital collection
materials, select Digital Collection
in the Limit by box. For information
about using digital collection search results, click User’s
Guide.
Note:
If your library handles course reserves, you can limit your
search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course
reserve items only check box. For more information, see “Find an
item on reserve”.
5. If you want to search a database other than the library’s catalog, or select multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and choose the databases. For more information, click User’s Guide.
6. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than the one displayed, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select a sorting option.
Relevance sorts titles in the search results so that those that seem most likely to meet your needs appear first in the list. Words that appear in both title and subject fields are considered in determining relevance. Most Popular sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.
When you select a sorting option that combines two categories, the results are sorted by the first category, then by the second.
Example:
You do a keyword search by subject. If you choose to sort
by Author, then Publication Date,
the titles about that subject are sorted first by author, then by publication
date within the group of each author’s titles.
Note:
When you choose to sort by publication date, the sorting
of serial titles in the results may not be obvious since the publication
date is not displayed in the brief results for these titles.
7. If you want to limit the search by library location, publication date, physical item material type, language, target audience, or collections, or set the number of titles that appear on each search results page, follow these steps:
a) Click Open Search Options.
b) Select the settings you want.
c) Click Set Search Options.
8. Click Go.
• If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.
Note:
You may find thousands of titles. You can focus searches
before you launch them to yield fewer but more useful titles. Click
User’s Guide for more information.
• If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also see a Did you mean suggestion. You can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term.
Note:
You may also see a more
link next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.
9. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles.
• Narrow your search results or do related searches. .
• Add a title to a title list.
• Place a request for a title, or purchase a title.
For more information, click User’s Guide.
Phrase and Exact Phrase Searches
A phrase search looks for matches to multiple words, in the same order you typed them. You might choose a phrase search when you know the phrase is part of a specific title, not necessarily at the beginning of the title.
Your library may offer another type of phrase searching called an exact search. An exact search looks for the exact phrase, from beginning to end. An exact search is useful when you know the entire phrase precisely; for example, when searching for titles such as It or Jazz.
Search for a phrase or an exact phrase
Follow these steps to find titles containing a specified phrase in any field or a selected field of the library catalog.
1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Phrase or Exact in the Search submenu.
2. Type the words to search for in the Phrase search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
• Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
• Word order matters. For example, a phrase series search for drew nancy may yield no results. The same search for nancy drew lists the titles in the Nancy Drew mystery series.
Tip:
If you are searching for an author, enter the author’s
name in this format: last name, first name,
because that is the way the name appears in the catalog. For exact searches,
use the format last name, first name*
(in case there are more characters, such as a middle initial).
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), the search is launched and your results include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.
3. Select a field to search in the Search by box:
• Any Field - All the indexed information fields (phrase only)
• Author - Author fields (phrase and exact)
• Subject - Subject fields (phrase and exact)
• Title - Title fields (phrase and exact)
• General notes - Notes fields (phrase only)
• Publisher - Publisher field (phrase only)
• Series - Series fields (phrase and exact)
• Genre - Forms or types of materials, such as science fiction, romance, biography, or large type books (phrase only)
4. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list. Your library may provide additional limiters, such as availability.
Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD
in the Limit by list.
Note:
Your library may provide a digital collection that you can search and access
online in the same way that you search for other materials. Materials
in the collection may include images, video clips, sound files, and
text files. If you want to restrict your search results to digital collection
materials, select Digital Collection
in the Limit by box. For information
about using digital collection search results, click User’s
Guide.
Note:
If your library handles course reserves, you can limit your
search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course
reserve items only check box. For more information, see “Find an
item on reserve”.
5. If you want to search a database other than the library, or select multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and choose the databases. For more information, click User’s Guide.
6. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than the one displayed, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select a sorting option.
Relevance sorts titles in the search results so those that seem most likely to meet your needs appear first in the list. Words that appear in both title and subject fields are considered in determining relevance. Most Popular sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.
When you select a sorting option that combines two categories, the results are sorted by the first category, then by the second.
Note:
When you choose to sort by publication date, the sorting
of serial titles in the results may not be obvious since the publication
date is not displayed in the brief results for these titles.
7. If you want to limit the search by library location, publication date, physical item material type, language, target audience, or collections, or set the number of titles that appear on each search results page, follow these steps:
a) Click Open Search Options.
b) Select the settings you want.
c) Click Set Search Options.
8. Click Go.
• If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.
Note:
Some searches may find thousands of titles. You can focus
searches before you launch them to yield fewer but more useful titles.
Click User’s Guide for more
information.
• If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also see a Did you mean suggestion. You can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term.
Note:
You may also see a more
link next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.
9. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles.
• Narrow your search results or do related searches. .
• Add a title to a title list.
• Place a request for a title, or purchase a title.
For more information, click User’s Guide.
With advanced searching, you can do a complex, focused keyword search, combining up to four search terms and selecting a search field for each one. You can set search options to limit an advanced search, and you can search multiple databases. You do not need to know any special commands to do advanced searching.
You can combine search terms with the following connector words (also called logical operators, or Boolean operators):
• And - Search results must match the search text before And, and the search text after And.
Example:
A search for Subject: planets And Author: Asimov finds only
the works written by Asimov about planets. Any works about planets by
other writers and any works by Asimov about other subjects are ignored.
• Or - Search results can match the search text before Or, the search text after Or, or both search terms.
Example:
The search Any field: planets Or Author: Asimov finds all
works written by Asimov, as well as all works containing the word planets
in any search field.These last works include titles by Isaac Asimov
and titles by other authors.
• Not - Search results must match the search text before Not, but must not include the search text after Not.
Example:
A search that specifies Any field: planets Not Author: Asimov finds
works containing the word planets in any search field, except works
by Asimov.
With advanced searching, you can build a complex search and focus it by setting search options. Follow these steps to do an advanced search.
1. Select Search on the menu bar, and select Advanced in the Search submenu.
The Advanced search bar appears.
2. Click the first Find Any field arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list. For search field descriptions, see “Search for a keyword”.
3. Type the search text in the empty box next to the first field, keeping in mind the following tips:
• Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. Omit hyphens in numbers. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
• If you type multiple words in the box, the search looks for the words in the exact order you typed them.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
Note:
For the number fields CODEN,
ISBN, ISSN,
Publisher No., STRN,
and SuDoc, enter the complete number
for best results.
4. Click the first And arrow symbol, and select one of the following operators to combine the first term with the next term:
• Select And to specify that the results must match both the first term and the next term.
• Select Or to specify that the results can match the first term, or the second term, or both.
• Select Not to specify that the results must match the first term, but must not match the second term.
Note:
If you type one of these operators in a search term box,
it is treated as search text, not as an operator.
5. Click the second Any field arrow symbol, select a search field from the list, and type the second term in the empty box next to the second field.
Note:
If you do not type any search terms, and just select an option
in the Limit by box (see step 8),
your results will include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.
Tip:
You can click Clear to
clear your search terms and start again.
6. If you want to add more search terms, repeat steps 2-5.
As you add search terms, the bar at the top of the page displays your search command. The terms you entered are displayed in normal type. The search commands, operators, and punctuation that the program creates are displayed in bold type.
When the search is launched, the operators will be processed according to the following order of precedence (lower values take precedence over higher values):
• AND = 1
• OR = 2
• NOT = 3
The search bar at the top of the page shows the order of precedence by placing nesting parentheses where appropriate. Terms within parentheses are processed first.
Tip:
If you leave a text entry box empty, the operator and search
field associated with the text box are ignored. As you construct your
search, the form shows the active boxes in a contrasting color.
7. To add another set of search terms, follow these steps:
a) Click Add or exclude another set of search terms.
The plus sign next to this link changes to a minus sign, and the page expands to display another set of four search fields. (You can click the minus sign to collapse the page again.)
b) By the Add or exclude link, select an operator (And, Or, Not) to connect the two sets of search terms.
c) Type the second set of search terms.
As you type, you see your search command in the bar at the top of the page. Your search terms cannot be greater than 1,000 characters total.
When the search is launched, terms in the top portion are placed in parentheses and processed in order of precedence (see step 6), the terms in the bottom portion are placed in parentheses and processed in order of precedence, then the top and bottom sections are combined according to the operator that separates them.
8. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list. Your library may provide additional limiters, such as availability.
Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD
in the Limit by list.
Note:
Your library may provide a digital collection that you can search and access
online in the same way that you search for other materials. Materials
in the collection may include images, video clips, sound files, and
text files. If you want to restrict your search results to digital collection
materials, select Digital Collection
in the Limit by box. For information
about using digital collection search results, click User’s
Guide.
Note:
If your library handles course reserves, you can limit your
search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course
reserve items only check box. For more information, see “Find an
item on reserve”.
9. If you want to search a database other than the library, or select multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and choose the databases.
10. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than the one displayed, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select a sorting option.
Relevance sorts titles in the search results so that those that seem most likely to meet your needs appear first in the list. Words that appear in both title and subject fields are considered in determining relevance. Most Popular sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.
When you select a sorting option that combines two categories, the results are sorted by the first category, then by the second.
Note:
When you choose to sort by publication date, the sorting
of serial titles in the results may not be obvious since the publication
date is not displayed in the brief results for these titles.
11. If you want to set limits on your search, you can scroll the page to use any or all of these search options:
• Libraries
Important:
“Detailed material types” are defined by the
library for the physical items the library owns. The formats in the
Limit by box on the search bar refer
to general formats and types of materials associated with title entries
in the catalog. You can limit a search by format or detailed material
type, but not both. If you selected a format in the Limit
by box when you set up your search, your format choice is
canceled when you set a material type.
• Number of titles that appear on each search results page
For more information about these options, click User’s Guide.
12. Click Go to launch the search.
When the search is finished, the search results list is displayed.
Important:
Search options retain the settings you make throughout your
session, unless you reset them to the default values. The links Change Search Options and Reset
Search Options on the search bar indicate that search options
are set to values different from the default values. To reset the search
options to their default values, click Reset
Search Options.
• If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.
• If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also see a Did you mean suggestion. You can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term.
Note:
You may also see a more
link next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.
13. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles.
• Narrow your search results or do related searches.
• Add a title to a title list.
• Place a request for a title, or purchase a title.
For more information, click User’s Guide.
With a Boolean search, you can do complex, precise searches by typing CQL (Common Query Language) search commands. The search command can include the following parts:
• The text for which you are searching
• The access points (fields) you want to search; for example, author or title (see “Search Access Point (Field) Codes”)
• Operators (connectors) that link one part of the search with another
Example:
To find the works of author Asimov published in or after
1970, you type the following command:
AU=asimov AND PD >= 1970
AU specifies the access point Author. The search text
for this access point is asimov.
AND is the Boolean operator connecting
the two conditions of this search (the author and the date).
PD specifies the access point Publication
Date. The search text for this access point is 1970.
The symbol >= is the relative operator
greater than or equal to.
Tip:
Advanced searching also offers Boolean operators which you
can use without typing the CQL command statement. See “Advanced
Searches”.
The Boolean operators And, Or, and Not combine search terms:
• And - A record must match both the term before and the term after the operator to be included in the search results.
Example:
AU=isaac asimov AND TI=planets
Finds only the items written by Isaac Asimov that have the
word planets in the title.
• Or - A record can match either the term before or the term after the operator, or both, to be included in the search results.
Example:
AU=isaac asimov OR TI=planets
Finds all items written by Isaac Asimov and all items with
the word planets in the title by
any author, including Asimov.
If you have a number of terms to combine with OR, type the command this
way:
AU={list}asimov, dick, ballard, lem, capek{/list}
You can insert as many terms as you need between {list} and {/list}
• Not - A record must match the term before the operator, but not the term after the operator, to be included in the search results.
Example:
AU=isaac asimov NOT TI=planets
Finds only those items written by Isaac Asimov that do not
have the word planets in the title.
If you use multiple operators in the same search command, use parentheses to group (nest) the operations to be performed.
Example:
(AU=rowling AND TI=potter) NOT ((AU=rowling
AND TI=phoenix)
Finds items by Rowling with the word Potter
in the title, but not titles by Rowling with the word Phoenix
in the title.
If you use multiple operators in the same search command but do not group the operations, the operators are processed according to the following precedence (lower values have higher precedence):
• PROX = 1 (see “Proximity Operator”)
• AND = 2
• OR = 3
• NOT = 4
To search for text that includes an operator or special
character as part of the search text, put the text in double quotation
marks. For example, to find the title Bud,
Not Buddy, type this command:
TI = “bud not buddy”
Relative operators are symbols that compare search terms:
Symbol |
Relative Operation |
= |
Equal to search term |
<> |
Not equal to a single search term: |
>= |
Greater than or equal to search term |
> |
Greater than search term |
<= |
Less than or equal to search term |
< |
Less than search term |
Example:
PD >= 1987
This example finds items published in or after 1987. PD specifies the publication date access
point. See “Search
Access Point (Field) Codes” for access point codes.
Example:
KW=solar system AND PD < 1932
This example finds items published before 1932 that have
the words “solar system” in any record field. KW specifies the keyword access point. See
“Search
Access Point (Field) Codes” for access point codes.
Proximity Operator
With proximity searching, you specify the allowable distance between two terms, which can be keywords or phrases. The proximity-distance operator is PROX/distance. The proximity-distance is the difference between the positions of the left and right terms. The distance is never negative, and adjacent terms have a proximity-distance equal to 1. You can use the operator with the relative operators < (less than), <= (less than or equal to), = (equals), >= (greater than or equal to), > (greater than), or <> (not equal to).
You can use the following modifiers:
/ordered - The order of the two terms in the search results must be the same as the order of the terms in the query.
/unordered - The order of the two terms does not matter in the search results.
You can use keyword or phrase search access points (such as KW, AU, TI) but the access point must be the same for both terms. If no access point is specified, KW (keyword) is assumed. See “Search Access Point (Field) Codes”.
Example:
“cat” PROX/distance<=5
“the hat”
Find the keyword cat where it appears less than or equal
to 5 words before or after the phrase the hat.
That is, between 0 and 4 words exist between the keyword cat
and the phrase the hat.
Example:
“Harry Potter” PROX/distance<10/ordered
“J. K. Rowling”
Find the phrase Harry Potter where
it appears less than 10 words before the phrase J.
K. Rowling. That is, between 0 and 8 words must exist between
the phrase Harry Potter and the phrase
J. K. Rowling, counting from the first
word in each phrase.
Example:
“United States” PROX/distance=2
“Union”
Find the phrase United States
where it appears exactly 2 words before or after the keyword Union. That is, exactly 1 word must exist
between the phrase United States and
the keyword Union.
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Restrictions
• The proximity operator does not support nested
Boolean expressions in either the left or right terms. For example,
((Dog OR Cat) PROX/distance=5 Food) PROX/distance=6
Kennel is not supported.
• The maximum proximity-distance is 1024. If the proximity-distance in the query is greater than 1024, the search process changes it to 1024.
• The total maximum number of keywords in a proximity expression is 16. That is, the number of keywords on the left side of the proximity operator plus the number of keywords on the right side of the proximity operator is limited to 16. If a proximity expression contains more than 16 words, then the proximity operator will be ignored but up to the first 16 words on the left and the right will be checked for adjacency.
• The keyword or phrase access point (such as
KW, AU,
TI) used in the left and right terms
must be the same. For example, the query
SU=HARRY PROX/distance<=5 AU=POTTER
is not supported and will produce an Unsupported
search error.
• The left and right terms for each proximity
operator must be a keyword or phrase and not a Boolean expression, but
there is no limit to the number of proximity operators in a query. For
example, this query is valid:
(AU=“J. K.” PROX/distance<10 AU=“Rowling”)
AND (TI=“Conversations With” PROX/distance<10
TI=“Rowling”)
AND MAT=BKS
Note:
The Boolean search fields in Polaris PowerPAC and ActivePAC
do not limit the number of characters you can enter, but to see long
queries, you may have to use the arrow keys on your keyboard.
Search Access Point (Field) Codes
Use these access point codes to specify what fields to search:
Access Point |
Description |
AB |
Assigned branch (requires library-specific codes) |
AU |
Author |
AVAILABILITY |
Filters search results to titles that have at least one available item. Type AVAILABILITY > 0. Example: To find Harry Potter titles with at least one available item, type TI = Harry Potter AND AVAILABILITY > 0.The AVAILABILITY access point works only for values greater than 0. (AVAILABILITY = 0 is not valid.) |
BRS |
Polaris bibliographic record set - control number (requires library-specific number) |
BRSN |
Polaris bibliographic record set - record set name (requires library-specific name) |
CALL |
Call number |
CODEN |
Identifier for scientific and technical periodicals |
COL |
Collection (requires library-specific codes) |
DD |
Dewey classification |
GENRE |
Genre |
GOV |
Superintendent of Documents classification number for government documents |
ISBN |
International Standard Book Number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
ISSN |
International Standard Serial Number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
KW |
Keyword (any field) |
LA |
Language (see “LA (Language) Codes”) |
LC |
Library of Congress classification |
LCCN |
Library of Congress Control Number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
MAT |
Material type of physical items (requires library-specific codes) |
NAL |
National Agricultural Library classification |
NLC |
National Library of Canada classification |
NLM |
National Library of Medicine classification |
NOTE |
General notes |
OCLC |
Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) control number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
OCN |
Other system control number (requires library-specific codes). Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
OWN |
Record owner (requires library-specific codes) |
PD |
|
PN |
Publisher’s number |
PUB |
Publisher |
SE |
Series |
STATB |
Record status (requires library-specific codes) |
STRN |
Standard Technical Report Number |
SU |
Subject |
TA |
Target audience (see “TA (Target Audience) Codes”) |
TI |
Title |
TOM |
Format/Type of Material (see “TOM (Format/Type of Material) Codes”) |
UDC |
Universal Decimal classification |
UPC |
Universal Price Code number. Type the wildcard character * at the beginning and end of the number you enter for best results. |
These are some common codes to use with the language access point (LA) in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the code, not the language name. For example, to specify English, type LA=ENG.
Note:
You can see a complete list of language codes at the Library
of Congress Web site:
www.loc.gov/marc/languages
Language |
Code |
Language |
Code |
Arabic |
ARA |
Korean |
KOR |
Bosnian |
BOS |
Latin |
LAT |
Chinese |
CHI |
Multiple Languages |
MUL |
Czech |
CZE |
Polish |
POL |
Danish |
DAN |
Portuguese |
POR |
Dutch |
DUT |
Romanian |
RUM |
English |
ENG |
Russian |
RUS |
French |
FRE |
Serbian |
SCC |
German |
GER |
Sign |
SGN |
Modern Greek |
GRE |
Spanish |
SPA |
Hebrew |
HEB |
Ukrainian |
UKR |
Hindi |
HIN |
Vietnamese |
VIE |
Italian |
ITA |
Yiddish |
YID |
Japanese |
JPN |
|
|
Use these codes with the target audience (TA) access point in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the code, not the target audience name. For example, to specify a preschool audience, type TA=a.
Note:
Not all bibliographic records include target audience information.
Target Audience |
Code |
Preschool |
a |
Primary school |
b |
Elementary and junior high school |
c |
Secondary (senior high) school |
d |
Adult |
e |
Specialized |
f |
General |
g |
Juvenile |
j |
TOM (Format/Type of Material) Codes
Use these codes with the Type of Material access point (TOM) in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the format/type of material code, not the name. For example, to specify DVDs, type TOM=DVD.
Format/Type of Material |
Code |
Format/Type of Material |
Code |
Abstract |
abs |
Microform |
mic |
Audio books |
abk |
Mixed materials |
mix |
AudioEbook |
aeb |
Motion picture |
mot |
Blu-Ray Disc |
brd |
Music CD |
mcd |
Book + Cassette |
bcs |
Musical sound recording |
msr |
Book + CD |
bcd |
Newspaper |
new |
Book |
bks |
Nonmusical sound recording |
nsr |
Braille |
brl |
Periodical |
per |
Cartographic material |
cmt |
Printed cartographic material |
pcm |
Digital media collection |
dmc |
Printed music |
pmu |
DVD |
dvd |
Printed or manuscript music |
mus |
Ebooks |
ebk |
Projected medium |
pgr |
Electronic resources |
elr |
Serial |
ser |
Globe |
glb |
Sound recording |
rec |
Kit |
kit |
Three-dimensional object |
art |
Large print |
lpt |
Two-dimensional nonprojected graphic |
ngr |
Manuscript cartographic material |
mcm |
Videorecording |
vid |
Manuscript material |
mss |
Videotape |
vcr |
Manuscript music |
mmu |
Visual materials |
vis |
Map |
map |
|
|
Do a search by typing a command
Follow these steps to search by typing a Common Query Language (CQL) command.
Note:
For more information about Common Query Language, see “Boolean
Operators”, “Relative
Operators”, and “Search
Access Point (Field) Codes”.
1. Select Search from the menu bar, and select Boolean from the Search submenu.
The Boolean search bar appears.
Tip:
You can set search options for the Boolean search instead
of typing the command variables. For more information about search options,
click User’s Guide.
2. Type the CQL command in the Boolean search for box, keeping the following tips in mind:
• Letter case is ignored.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• Use parentheses to group search terms.
Example:
The following command finds works of the author Asimov which
have titles with the word foundation, except audio books published after
1990:
(AU=asimov AND TI=foundation) NOT (TOM=abk and
PD>1990)
Terms inside the parentheses are processed first, then the
entire command.
• To include text that is ordinarily ignored, such as punctuation or Boolean command words in the search text, place the search text in quotation marks.
Example:
To find the title Bud, Not Buddy,
type the following command:
TI = “bud not buddy”
3. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than the one displayed, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select a sorting option.
Relevance sorts titles in the search results so that those that seem most likely to meet your needs appear first in the list. Words that appear in both title and subject fields are considered in determining relevance.Most Popular sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.
When you select a sorting option that combines two categories, the results are sorted by the first category, then by the second.
Notes:
If your library handles course reserves, you can limit your
search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course
reserve items only check box. For more information, see “Find an
item on reserve”.
When you choose to sort by publication date, the sorting of serial titles in the results may not be obvious since the publication date is not displayed in the brief results for these titles.
4. If you want to set databases to search, click Select Databases, and select databases to search. For more information, click User’s Guide.
5. Click Go.
When the search is finished, the search results list is displayed.
Note:
Some searches may find thousands of titles. You can focus
searches to yield fewer but more useful titles. Click User’s
Guide for more information.
6. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
• Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles.
• Narrow your search results or do related searches. .
• Add a title to a title list.
• Place a request for a title, or purchase a title.
For more information, click User’s Guide.
When you browse the library catalog, you can type just the first few letters or numbers of your search term—an author’s name, a subject, a series name, a title, or a call number. The results list shows the portion of the catalog index that begins with the text you have typed. You can scroll through the index to see more headings or listings. You may also find useful links to related headings or listings. When you select a heading or listing in the index, you see information about the titles associated with the heading or listing.
Follow these steps to browse the catalog.
1. Select Search on the menu bar, and select Browse in the search submenu.
2. In the Search for list, select an index option (Title, Author, Subject, Series, or Call Number).
Note:
Call number options may differ depending on the library to
which you are currently connected. LC
(Library of Congress) and Dewey options
display the corresponding call number index drawn from the bibliographic
records of the catalog. LC call numbers begin with one or two alphabetic
characters (letters). Dewey call numbers begin with numbers. Omit any
prefix, such as Ref. Call Number displays the call number index
of the individual items on the library shelves, so your results are
like a virtual shelf list for the local branch. This option is available
only when you are connected to a branch, not the library system.
3. In the that begins with box, type the first few letters or numbers of the the title, author’s last name, the subject word, the series name, or the call number.
4. If you want to change the number of headings or listings to display on a page, click Search options and select a number.
5. Click Go.
The results list displays the catalog headings or listings, and the number of titles associated with each heading or listing.
6. Navigate the index using one of these methods:
• Click <<Previous 10 Headings or Next 10 Headings>> to browse through the index.
• Title listings may show different types of material for the same title, such as Book, DVD, and Videotape. You can click a type of material to see the titles of that type.
Tip:
Cross-references are very useful when you browse the subject
index. You can easily go to related subjects by clicking the cross-reference
links.
• The headings may include cross-reference links that refer you to related headings. Click a cross-reference link to go to the portion of the index that includes the related heading.
7. Click a heading or listing to display the associated titles.
To return to the headings list, click Go Back to Browse Results at the top or bottom of the page.
If your library holds items reserved for courses at a school or college, you may be able to search for course reserve information and materials. You can search for course records, which list all the items on reserve for a course, and you can search for specific items on reserve. From your search results, you can locate a reserve item in the library and view its circulation status. You may be able to ask the library to hold a reserved item for you to check out.
Course reserve records store general information about courses that have items on reserve, and provide links to all the items on reserve for the course. Follow these steps to find course reserve records.
1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Course Reserves in the Search submenu.
2. Type the text to search for in the Course Reserve search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
• Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. Omit hyphens in numbers.
• You can type more than one word. The results have all the words in the specified field, in the same order you typed them.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• If you are looking for a course name that begins with an article (A, An, The), you must include the article or use a wildcard character. If you are not sure, use the wildcard character.
Example:
To find a course named The Middle Ages, you can type the middle ages, *middle
ages, or *middle. If you
type middle ages, the search does
not find the course.
3. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list. You have the following options:
• Course Name
• Course Number/Section
• Course Abbreviation
• School/Division Name
• Department Name
• Instructor Name - Primary or alternate instructor (Last name, first name)
4. Click Go.
The results appear in the center area of the page.
5. To see more information about a course, click the course name, the Availability button, or the Full Display button.
6. If necessary, click the link Click here to see items from all branches to see each item associated with the course, including the item location, reserve status, and circulation status. (Click the plus sign by a location to see the listings for that location.)
7. Click Full Display to display more information about the course itself.
When you search for items on reserve, the search results include titles that match your search criteria and have at least one associated item on reserve for a course. Detailed information about any title in the search results shows the course for which an item is reserved. You can link to course information from the search results. Follow these steps to find items on reserve.
1. Click Search on the menu bar, and select any search method except Browse in the Search submenu. See “Searching”.
2. Select (check) Course reserve items only on the search bar.
3. If you want to find only a certain kind of course reserve material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list.
Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD
in the Limit by list.
4. Type the text to search for in the search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
• Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. Omit hyphens in numbers.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
• If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 3), your results will include all the course reserve materials that fit your Limit by selection.
5. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list.
6. Click Go.
When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.
7. To see more information about the items on reserve, click the Availability button.
Availability information is displayed, but the information applies to the item when it is not on reserve.
8. To see more information
about a course for which an item is reserved, including
the current location of the reserved item, click Course Reserve next to the item in the Item Availability list.
The course record is displayed.
If you searched and did not get any results, try these strategies:
• Check your search text:
• If there is a Did You Mean suggestion, click the suggestion to launch a new search.
Note:
You may also see a more
link next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.
• Click Dictionary on the search submenu to access the dictionary.
• Click Thesaurus on the search submenu to find related words (synonyms).
• Try browsing for titles, authors, or subjects. See “Browsing the Catalog”.
• Click Select Databases and choose search targets beyond the library, if your library offers them.
• If your library offers this feature, click Save Search to run your search automatically at specified intervals. Automatic searches check for items that are new since the last time the search was run. Click User’s Guide for more information.
• Get help from a librarian in person or through these features, if your library offers them:
• Click Ask Us on the toolbar to send an e-mail message to the library.
• Click the Live Reference Librarian link at the bottom of most catalog pages to talk with a reference librarian online.