Each record in the library catalog contains specific information about a work, such as the title, author, and subject. You can search these record fields for keywords. A keyword search in any field looks in all the search fields of the library catalog to find your keyword text. Other keyword searches narrow the search for the keyword only in the author, subject, title, or other specific fields.
Typing Search Text - Keyword Searches
• Case, spaces, punctuation - 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): + # % $
• Multiple words - 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.
• Wildcard characters - 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 the question mark occurs at the end of a word, it does not act as a wildcard character, so you can find titles like what color is your parachute? Also, if you type a backslash character \ before any wildcard character, the wildcard character is treated as text.
Do a keyword search
1. Click Keyword on the Search menu.
2. Type the text to search for in the Keyword search for box. See Typing Search Text - Keyword Searches.
You may see suggested search terms as you type. You can ignore the suggestions and continue to type your search term, or click a suggestion to search for the suggested term. Click Hide Suggestions if you do not want to see search suggestions. Click the small arrow in the search text box to show the suggestions after they have been hidden.
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. To limit your search, 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.
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.
5. If you want to set additional limits, follow these steps:
a) Click More Search Options.
b) Select the settings you want. To select several consecutive items in a list, hold down the SHIFT key as you select the items. To select several items that are not listed together, hold down the CTRL key as you select the items.
You can also exclude items from a search. Select them from the appropriate list, and click the Exclude box below the list.
Note:
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.
c) Click Set Search Options, and click Close to close the options window.
The search bar displays a highlighted message that options have been set. To change them, click the Change link in the highlighted Options have been set message, set new values and click Set Search Options. Then do a new search.
To reset the search options to their original values, click the Reset link in the highlighted Options have been set message. The search is done again, using the original values.
Important:
Search options retain their settings until you reset them
or go to the home page. The highlighted message Options
have been set on the search bar indicates that search options
are set to values different from the usual values.
6. To search a database other than the library’s catalog, or select multiple databases to search:
a) Click Select Databases and check the databases you want to search.
b) Click Set Selected Databases.
c) Click Close.
Your selections remain until you reset them. To reset the search databases, click Select Databases again. Then click Reset and Close.
7. Click Go.
• If the search is successful, you see your search results.
• 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.
8. To see more information about a title in your search results list, click the title or cover image.
9. To filter your search results or do related searches, click a Narrow or Related option at the side of the page.