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Help with Searching

Guided Search

What it does

Retrieves materials by keyword. The system can search the catalog record or just a specific field (e.g., author, title, publisher, etc.). The Guided Search screen consists of three search sets that can be tied together with Boolean Operators

When to use it

Guided Keyword search is especially helpful when you are looking for specific items but do not know the initial words of a title or a person's complete name; or when you wish to create a precise search strategy, combining or excluding search words or phrases.

How to perform a Guided Search

  1. Set search limits before building your search, if you want to limit the results. Click the "Set Search Limits" button if you want to restrict your results to a particular medium, language, date range, or location.
  2. Enter the keywords or phrase you want to find in one or more of the "Find this:" search boxes. Punctuation and case are ignored.
  3. After you enter a search term, select the method in the drop-down box after that term. In this way, you can choose the way that each keyword is to be considered. Select from one of the following options:
    All of these
    Will find records containing all of the keywords (the equivalent of the Boolean operator AND)
    Any of these
    Will find records containing any of the keywords (the equivalent of the Boolean operator OR)
    As a phrase
    Will find records containing the keywords in the exact order they appear in the search box.
  4. Click the drop-down arrow next to the "As:" box for a list of field indexes. Select a field to search, or select "Keyword Anywhere". "Keyword Anywhere" is the default index and performs the broadest search. It searches all of the fields in a catalog record for the keywords or phrases entered in the Find this: box.
  5. If you have entered search terms in more than one "Find this:" box, select a Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT) to connect the search statements in the separate boxes.
    • AND will narrow the search by combining the terms: florida and history
    • OR will broaden the search by allowing either term to be found: cars or automobiles
    • NOT ensures that certain terms will not appear in the search results: ships not space
  6. Choose the number of records to display per page.
  7. Click Search. Click the Reset button to clear the search page.

Tips

If you wish to use the Set Search limits page, you must set the limits before filling in the Search: boxes.

Searches are NOT case sensitive: a search for Florida or florida will retrieve the same records. Do NOT use quotes around phrases: white cane

Use caution when selecting the Boolean NOT operator so that desired catalog records are not inadvertently excluded.

The order of the search results varies with the choice of index.

Search Limits

Search limits are available. Help on search limits

Truncation

Use a question mark at the end of a search word for truncation: canoe? will search for canoe, canoeing, canoer, canoeist, canoes, etc.

More Info

In search results, most headings will link directly to catalog records. Headings marked with the MORE INFO icon link to a separate page that provides the user with information and links to headings that reflect the official Library of Congress Subject Headings.