- Use upper or lower case letters.
- Punctuation is optional, unless stated otherwise.
- Be aware that spellings vary, e.g., labour/labor; theatre/theater.
- Backspace and type over typographical errors.
- Additional search options appear at the bottom of each screen.
- Truncation is automatic except in the WORDS search option.
What is a "Words" search?
Use the WORDS search to look for significant words about the items you want.
WORDS may come from anywhere (titles, authors, subjects, etc.).
Search WORDS if you know some words from a title, author, or subject
but not the full entry. With the WORDS search, you can also combine
significant words from author and title together, author and subject together,
subject and publisher together, etc.
The WORDS search allows searching adjacent words, or you can specify
operators AND, OR, AND NOT, NEAR, or WITHIN "n". You can truncate words to
retrieve variant endings.
See instructions and examples on the WORDS search page.
The WORDS search also allows you to specify other attributes about the items
you're seeking, such as Language, Material Type, Location, and Publication Year.
Results can be sorted by date, relevance, or alphabetically.
Selecting words to search:
- Use words that are as specific and definitive as possible. For example:
climatology (rather than "weather").
- Try synonyms of your terms, or think of alternate ways to express the
concepts you are searching. For example: contraception or (birth
control).
- Try variant spellings. For example: absurd and (theater or
theatre).
If you have questions, ask library staff for help.
Back
to top
Selecting terms for a
"Words" search.
Use search terms that are as specific, as definitive as possible.
For
example: heifers rather
than: cattle
Try synonyms of your terms, or think of alternate ways to express the
concepts you are searching.
For example: contraception or (birth control)
Try variant spellings.
For example: absurd
and (theater or theatre)
Stop Words
Stopwords are short, frequently occurring words which slow down processing
time on the system when they are searched. Most databases have a list of
stopwords that the system ignores during a search.
The following are examples of common stopwords:
|
a
|
be
|
is
|
that
|
an
|
by
|
it
|
on
|
to
|
|
the
|
as
|
for
|
of
|
this
|
at
|
he
|
with
|
in
|
Combining terms in a "Words" search.
Combining terms in a WORDS search (AND, OR, NOT)
|
AND:
You may use the connector "and" to combine terms
in a WORDS search. "And" means that all search terms must be present in records
retrieved. If no connector is used between multiple words, the system searches
as if "and" has been used to combine the terms. |
For example: |
grains and cereals |
| or just |
grains cereals |
| retrieves only records in which BOTH "grains" and "cereals"
appear. |
| For example: |
letter birmingham jail |
| retrieves only records in which all three words (letter,
Birmingham, and jail) appear.
Using "and" NARROWS a search. |
| |
|
|
OR:
You may use the connector "or" in a WORDS search
to search on several alternative terms at once. Use "or" when you want to see
all the records which contain ANY of the terms you specify. |
For example: |
mice or gerbils |
| retrieves all records in which either "mice" or "gerbils" appears. |
| For example: |
galax* or nebula* |
| retrieves all records in which either "galax" appears as a root
word (galaxy, galaxies) or "nebula" appears as a root word (nebula,
nebulae). |
| |
|
| You may use "or" to search
for variant spellings
|
For example: |
cataloger or cataloguer |
| Using "or" EXPANDS a search. |
| |
|
|
NOT:
You may use the connector "not" (or "no") in a
WORDS search to exclude a term. Using "not" narrows a search. |
For example: |
lizards not reptiles |
| retrieves all records which contain "lizards" but excludes those
which also contain the word "reptiles". |
| For example |
galax* not novel* |
| retrieves all records which contain "galaxy" or "galaxies" but
excludes those which also contain "novel" or "novels". |
Back to top
Using parentheses in a "Words" search.
Using parentheses in a WORDS search
|
Use parentheses to group
terms that you want to search as units
|
For example: |
(manic depression) or (bipolar disorder) |
| Retrieves all records in which "manic" and "depression" both
appear, and all records in which "bipolar" and "disorder" both appear. |
|
|
|
|
You may use connectors
"and", "or", and "not" to specify logical operations |
For example: |
(herbal or dietary) supplements |
| Retrieves records in which "supplements" appears, along with
either "herbal" or "dietary". |
|
|
|
|
You may nest
parentheses |
For example: |
gangs and ((los angeles) or (new york)) |
| Retrieves records in which "Los" and "Angeles" and "gangs" appear,
and records in which "New" and "York" and "gangs" appear. |
|
|
|
|
IF NO RECORDS are retrieved
in a search which included parenthetical information, the system will offer two
options: 1) BROWSE word index, and 2) Show records with a specific WORD. |
For example: |
art and (skid row) |
|
Retrieves no records.
If you choose BROWSE word index, the system will show the number of
occurrences of each word in your failed search statement. You may select a term
and move into the word index with that term. From the word index, you may browse
forward or backward and/or select records for a specific term.
If you choose Show records with a specific WORD, the system will
show the number of occurrences of each word in your failed search statement. You
may elect to do an immediate WORD search on any term that appeared in your
failed search statement. |
|
|
|
|
Word
Ignored means that a word you used in your search
statement does not appear in the searchable fields.
The system will search the other words in
your search statement and post the results for each.
A message "[word]-> is not in any
records - WORD IGNORED" will appearwith the
word which has no records.
|
For example: |
highrolling and (skid row) |
|
Retrieves no records.
The system will combine the terms "skid" and "row" and report the number of
occurrences of each term and the number of records in which "skid" and "row"
appear. The system will also report "highrolling -> is not in any records -
WORD IGNORED." The system will offer the option to view any records retrieved
with the other terms.
NOTE: Check that the word is spelled correctly. |
SYNTAX ERROR means that the system cannot interpret your search argument
logic. In the event of incorrect syntax, the system will specify the problem and
redisplay your search argument using a caret (^) to point to the location of the
error. You may retype your search statement to conform to the parameters of the
search software.
Back
to top
Too much information?
If you retrieve too many records, you can narrow your search.
- You may use the LIMIT option to narrow your results by one or more of the
following:
- Language (e.g. Spanish, French, etc.)
- Material type (e.g. audio-visual, etc.)
- Words in the author
- Words in the title
- Words in the subject
- Publisher (e.g. Harper & Row, etc.)
- Where the item is located (e.g. Ohio State University)
- Year of publication (e.g. 1987, after 1987; for years prior to 1900,
backspace over the prompt and type.)
You may enter several limiting factors before selecting the FIND option.
- In the best records you have found, select the SHOW SIMILAR items. Pick the
subject that best meets your needs, and examine the records under that subject.
- In the best records you have found, examine the words in the article titles
and subjects. Do a WORDS search using the best word(s) from these.
Too little information?
To locate more information:
- In the best records you have found, select the SHOW SIMILAR items. Pick the
subject that best meets your needs, and examine the records under that subject.
- In the best records you have found, examine the words in the article titles
and subjects. Do a WORDS search using the best word(s) from these.
- Do a WORDS search with similar terms joined by "or"
For example: (herbal or dietary) and supplements
- In the WORDS search or in the LIMIT option, use * to truncate
For example: herbal*
finds herbal, herbalism, herbalist, herbals,
etc.
- In TITLE, SUBJECT, or AUTHOR searches, use truncation to retrieve words with
alternate endings
For example: herbal
finds titles such as Herbal, Herbal almanac,
Herbal healing, Herbalist, and Herbals
|
