Advanced Search

If you are in Advanced search, you can limit your keyword search to terms from specific categories in the IndexCat record. Your choices are:

• Keyword Anywhere Search
• Subject Search
• Author Search
• Title/Journal Title Search
• Date Search
• Item Type Search
• ID Number Search

To perform an Advanced search in any category:

1. Click on the Advanced search tab on the main search page

2. Click Select Index Catalogue Collection box

3. Select the specific search category from the drop-down list

4. Type the word(s) you want to search in the Advanced Search box

5. To truncate words, indicate word importance or a phrase, apply the following characters:

• Use a question mark (?) after a search term to indicate truncation: child? (finds child, children, childhood, etc.)
• Use quotation marks to search for specific phrases: "by localities"
• Use a plus sign (+) before a terms to indicate an essential term: +leukemia
• Use an asterisk (*) before a term to indicate an important item: *treatment
• Use an exclamation point (!) before a term to indicate that records containing the term are not to be displayed: !childish
Tip: Some stems for truncations: case? biog? obit?

6. For a multi-term search, select the type of search to the right of the search box.

7. From the drop-down list, select whether you want to search for:

• any of these (meaning OR)
• all of these (meaning AND)
• as a phrase

8. You can narrow your search by adding more terms in the additional search boxes. You first want to use the radio buttons to select which boolean operator you want applied to the next search term(s): AND, OR, or NOT.

• Then select the search category (Keyword Anywhere, Subject, Author, Title/ Journal Title, etc.)
• Add your term(s) in the search box.
• Then select the type of search to the right of the box.

9. In Advanced search, there are three (3) pre-formatted boxes for Boolean combinations.

10. The default number of records displayed on each page is 20. The maximum is 50 records per page. You can change this by using the 'Records per Page' drop-down menu.

11. Click the Search button to begin your search.

12. Search results display at a summary level in Collection Results, in an Author/Title list in a Results List, and a Record Display for the individual item.