Catalog Search Help
The following list
of help topics will link you to the
appropriate section. To return to the list,
click the back button on your navigation
toolbar or scroll to the top of the page.
Catalog searching specifically
restricts the search to bibliographic
information. Up to three search terms can
be combined with Boolean operators. All
search options are available through
pull-down menus. Search by:
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Title, which looks for all books
of that title, or that contain the search
term within the title.
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Author, which looks for all books
by the designated author. Unless a full
name is submitted, the search engine will
look for the submitted term as both a
first and last name.
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Subject, which looks for all books
of the indicated subject.
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Imprint, which looks for all books
of the specified city of publication,
publisher.
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The user must be careful only to
enter one search type into the
Imprint field. For example,
the publisher, Hinkle, and the
place of publication, New
York, can not be entered into the
same search box. Hinkle has to
go in one search box, and New
York has to go into another
search box.
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Only the proper names of the
publishers should be used because of
the inconsistencies of transcribing
publishers' names and the frequent
changes in publishers' names. Omit
such terms and phrases as "Company,"
"Incorporated," and "& Sons."
Searches can be restricted to a range of
publication dates.
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Type the beginning of the publication
date range in the Start Date box,
and the terminus of the date range in the
End Date box.
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You must enter the full 4 digits for any
given year (ie "1945").
-
If you wish to search for a single year,
enter that year in the Start Date
box and leave the End Date box
blank.
For sets larger than 100 results, you can
choose from the pull-down menu how to
view the results. You can either view the
First 100 results, Sample 100
enteries from the total results, or view
All of the reuslts.
Submittig a search will bring up a new
"match results" page. For help on how to
use this results page see the Match Results Page
section.
Boolean operators are what allow you to
combine terms and define the relationship of
those terms for a Boolean search. The
operators are And, Or, and
Not. Boolean expressions are operated
on from left to right. This means you
will need to take some care in formulating
your search. For example:
You wish to find text that mentions the
word lessons And either the
words music Or dance.
Your search should be formulated as
music Or dance
And lessons.
-
Since the search works from left to
right, the search will first look for
the set of texts that contains
either music Or
dance.
-
The search then will look within the
retrieved set of texts for instances
where the word lessons also is
found.
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The result is the combination of the
found text sets.
If you had formulated your search as
lessons And music
Or dance you would have
received very different results. Why?
-
Remember that the search works from
left to right. The search would have
first looked for the set of texts that
contains both the words
lessons And music.
-
Next it would have looked for the texts
that contain the word dance.
-
Then it would combine those two sets of
results and eliminated the duplicates
to give you your final product.
-
This means that you would have two
distinctive sets of text. The two sets
have been grouped together to expand
the results of the search, but the two
sets of text do not reference or
interact with eachother. One set of
texts exclusivly would contain the word
dance, and the other set
exclusivly would contain the words
lessons And music.
Think of the Boolean format as a bracketed
mathematical expression:
[( a * b ) * c ] * d
The search operates first on the smallest
innermost bracket, second on the next
largest bracket and the results of the
first bracket, and third on the outermost
term and the results of the second bracket.
Advanced Searches
Search types can be combined to create a
precise search. For example:
You want to find out how many editions the
collection contains of the McGuffey
sixth eclectic reader first published
in 1867. Formulate the search as
McGuffey (Author)
AND sixth eclectic
(Title) and enter
1867 into the Start
Date box.
Search types can be combined to increase the
amount of data retrieved, or to refine a
concept. For example:
You are interested in a book on manners,
but a simple search on the word "manners"
will retrieve a list of books on geography
and ethnography, as well as books on
etiquette. Use the subject headings
synonymous with "manners" (such as
etiquette or courtesy) to refine and
increase your results.
-
For the broadest results, you would
formulate your search as
etiquette
(Anywhere) OR
courtesy
(Anywhere).
-
To limit retrieval, you would form your
search as etiquette
(Subject) OR
courtesy
(Subject).
Only items with these words in the subject
headings will be retrieved.
Browsing
The browse engine allows you to search
through a list of books for each
field--Author, Subject, Personal Names,
Organizations, or Location. Each browse field
is organized alphabetically.
To begin your search, click on the desired
letter of the alphabet for the appropriate
browse field. A new page will come up
containing (from top to bottom):
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The name of the browse field you
are utilizing.
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The letter of the alphabet to
which you are currently linked.
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Other letters of the alphabet for the
browse field to which you can link.
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A link to jump to the Search Submission
button.
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The relevent browse categories
listed in alphbetical order, including
(from left to right):
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A check box to submit the
category for a search.
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The category name which is a
hyperlink to its relevant list of
books.
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The number of items contained
in the category.
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The Submit Search button.
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A link to return to the Search Page.
If you want to choose a single category
on the page, click on the hyperlink. If
you wish to view multiple categories,
click on the check boxes, go to the end
of the page and click the Submit
Search button.
Submittig a search will bring up a new
"match results" page. For help on how to
use this results page see the Match Results Page
section.
Match Results Page
Submitting your search will bring up a new
"match results" page containing (from top to
bottom):
-
A list of the subjects you chose
to search.
-
The number of matches resulting
from your search.
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The list of matches, including
(from left to right):
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A check box to add the item to
the Print List.
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The author of the item, and
the author's birth and death dates
(if available).
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The title of the item.
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A "More" link to the item's
full bibligraphic information, and an
Associated Subject Headings search
form.
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What the item is.
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The option of either adding checked
items to the Print List which returns
you to a search page, or displaying
checked items for printing. Perform
either of these options by hitting the
Submit button.
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A link that will clear all
contents of Print List and return you to
the Main Search page.
When you submit your checked matches to
"Add Checked Items to Print List and
Return to Search" a new search page will
come up. At the bottom of the page, there is
a list of the Current Print List
Contents. Please note that the
search format is not the browse
format. You are now using the
Catalog Search form. For help
with Searching the Catalog see Catalog
Searches.
Please note that hitting the Back
button on your browser will take you back
to the "match results" page, but it will
clear all checkmarked items and
erase your Print List.
When you submit your checked matches to
"Display Checked Items for Printing"
the search engine will bring up the full
bibliograhic information of all checked items
and items in the Print List.
The "More" Link & The Associated
Subject Headings Search Form
Clicking the "More" link beside an
item will bring up a new page with the full
bibliographic information for that item, and
an Associated Subject Headings search
form.
The Associated Subject Headings search form
allows you to search for items that have
the same subject headings as the given
record.
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Check the subject areas that you are
interested in.
-
Use the pull-down menu to search either
in ANY of the checked Subject
Areas, or ALL of the checked
Subject Areas.
ANY is equivalent to the
Boolean operator OR, and
ALL is equivalent to the
Boolean operator AND. For help
with Boolean operators see Boolean
Operators.
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Submit your search by clicking the
Submit Search button.
Please note, if you wish to add the
given book to your print list without doing
a subject search, please use the back
button and select it from the browse list.
If you do wish to do a subject search,
check the book and it will be included in
your next results.
Printing A List of Your Results
As you search through the bibliography
catalog, you may click on the checkboxes
next to the items that you wish to add to a
list for printing. Provided at the bottom
of the page is a list of the current
contents of your Print List. If you want to
remove any item from your list, uncheck the
box. Just above your current print list you
have the options to return to the search
page for an additional search, to view
additional items that matched your query
(if there are more than 100 items that
matched), or to display a list of checked
items with basic bibliographic and location
information. When you display the contents
of the Print List you can use the Print
function of your browser to print your
selection of books.
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