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A keyword search allows one to search for keywords and phrases across the major fields of the catalog: authors, titles, series, subjects, notes, contents notes, and publishers.
Unlike the other search options, the Keyword Search can find words and phrases within a title, series, author, or subject.
!!! Keyword searches cannot be used to find items by call number, International Standard Book Number (ISBN) or International Standard Serial Number (ISSN). Keyword searches are not able to take advantage of cross-references that are available in author, title, and subject searches.
The Keyword search finds all items in the Catalog that include all of your search terms.
| cold war | ... finds all items with both words appearing anywhere in the record - the words need not appear next to each other to be retrieved. The search is interpreted as the boolean search: cold AND war. |
Put phrases in quotes. Additional search terms can be added to narrow your search.
| "double helix" | ... finds all items mentioning the exact phrase "double helix." |
| "Catcher in the rye" | ... items must include the exact phrase, including the words "in" and "the." |
| "medical ethics" genome | Finds all items with the phrase "medical ethics" and the word "genome." |
Connectors allow one to specify the relationship between the words or phrases that are being searched. Use parentheses when using more than one connector in your search (see below).
| melville moby | ... finds items with both words |
| proliferation (atomic or nuclear) | ... finds all items that have the word "proliferation" and either "atomic" or "nuclear." |
| "atomic weapons" or "nuclear weapons" | ... finds all items that have either the phrase "atomic weapons" or "nuclear weapons." |
| IRA and not Irish | ... to exclude certain words or phrases |
Proximity connectors allow one to specify the relationship between the words or phrases that are being searched. Use "near" to specify words that are within 10 words each other, in any order. Use "within #", where # is any number you chose, to specify that the words occur within # of each other, in any order. The value of # has no limit.
| marketing near (plan or plans or planning or strategy) |
| marketing within 3 (plan or plans or planning or strategy) |
Truncation allows one to find words for which there are variations in spelling or alternate endings. Any word that has two or more characters can be right-hand truncated. Use a single asterisk * to match 0-5 characters and a double asterisk ** for open-ended truncation.
| radio* | 0-5 characters. Finds "radio" and "radios," but not "radiometric." |
| comput** | Unlimited truncation. Finds any word beginning with "comput" |
| Wom*n and Lab*r | Internal truncation. Finds "women" or "woman" and "labor" or "labour." |
Abbreviations
Include periods when they appear within an abbreviation.
N.B. You may also have to search for the abbreviation without periods as well as the spelled out form to find all items. In the examples below, the OR connector is used find all abbreviated and spelled out forms.
| u.s.a. or usa or "united states of america" |
| fbi or f.b.i. or "federal bureau of investigation" |
Field searching allows you to do a "free-text" search within a specific field, such as author or title. Words are searched in all fields unless fields are specified. The fields that are available for searching are a:(author), t:(title), s:(subject), and o:(other), which searches notes, contents notes, and publishers. To search a specific field, type the single letter field label followed a colon and the search word(s). Be sure to use a
| a:strunk and a:white | ... finds items by joint authors |
| a:twain and t:huck | ... combines author and title words |
| a:ackerman and o:doubleday | ... combines author and publisher |
If your search retrieves too many items, click on the Modify Search button. This will return you to the Keyword Search screen so you can add additional words to your search or select various criteria to limit your search. For complete information on all available limits, consult the help page, "Modify Search."
You can use the pull-down menu to limit your search to one of the twenty most frequently represented languages in the catalog.
If you need to limit your search to a language not on the menu, use the appropriate three-letter language code appended to the prefix "lang:lang" as in the examples below. A list of available three-letter language codes can be found by following this link.
| lang:langswa | ... finds items in Swahili |
| bible and lang:langalg | ... finds bibles in Algonquin |
You can use the pull-down menu to limit your search to one of the following library locations:
If you need to limit your search to a location not on the menu, such as Feldberg Reference, you will need to search for the location by keyword using the appropriate location code prefixed by the phrase, "branch:branch," as in the examples below. A list of available location codes can be found by following this link.
| branch:branchbarf and france | ... finds items on France in Baker/Berry Reference |
| (frost near robert) and branch:branchbakr |
... finds items by or about Robert Frost in Baker/Berry |
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