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Advanced searching

by Kevin Enns-Rempel on September 9th, 2022 in Searching the Library | 0 Comments

As we discovered in the last blog post, even "basic" searching provides lots of powerful ways to fine tune the parameters of a library search. But there is another tool that provides even more ways to do that. It's called the "advanced search" option.

There are two ways to activate the advanced option, either before or after you start your initial search. To do it before, simply click the Advanced Search link that appears below the discovery service search box on the library home page. To do it after starting a basic search, go up to the search bar at the top of the results page and click on the link for Options. Either way, you'll be taken to the advanced search screen.

Much of what you'll see on this screen are simply new ways to do things that are already possible when refining a basic search (as described in our last blog post). The two new tools, which we'll discuss here, are both found near the top of the screen. They are the ability to choose the precise field in which you want a search term to appear and the ability to link multiple search terms together.

The ability to pick the specific field can be a very helpful way to reduce the number of unwanted results from a search. Let's say that you want to find things written by Joan Didion. If you do a basic search for that name, you'll get almost 1,000 results -- most of them things about Joan Didion rather than things written by her. But if you click on the drop-down menu located near the top left of the advanced search screen, you'll see that you can select the exact field in which you want to find your desired search term. Changing that option to Author results in only 36 results (at least on the day that I wrote this) -- and all of them are things actually written by Joan Didion. That's a much easier list to review.

The other new feature is the ability to link multiple search terms together. At the top of the advanced search screen you'll see that there are two search fields available. You can create even more by clicking the sign to the right of either field. Each field can be linked by one of three terms: "and," or," "not." (Fun fact: these three linking terms are known as "Boolean operators." They are named for 19th-century British mathematician George Boole, who worked in the field of mathematical logic.)

The great thing about Boolean operators is that they allow you to create a very finely-tuned search. Search terms linked with AND mean that both of the terms must be present. Searches linked with OR mean that either term may be present. Searches linked with NOT mean that the first term must be present, but the second should be excluded.

Here are some examples:

  • Search for all fields="John Steinbeck, AND all fields="Grapes of Wrath." This will give you only results in which both of those terms are in the record
  • Search for subject=Claude Monet OR subject=Auguste Renoir. This will give you everything in which either of those artists are mentioned in the subject field. You should keep in mind that searches linked with OR can often result in very large results lists.
  • Search for all fields="Civil War" NOT subject="United States." This will give you results for civil wars in countries other than the United States.

The results for linked searches won't be perfect, since not all library catalog records are created using precisely the same rules. Some unwanted results will always get through, but using this technique will give you much more precise list of results than simply putting those words into the basic search box.


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