Online Library System Help

Search Instructions with Examples:

• Searching by Title
• Searching by Keyword
• Searching by Author
• Searching by Corporate Source
• Searching by OLS Number Fields (Report Number, Call Number, OCLC Number)

• Searching by Year of Publication
• Searching the Subject Field
• Searching the Notes Field
• Sorting Your Search Results
• Searching a Specific Collection of Materials
• Limiting to a Specific Database
• Searching Multiple Fields

System Features

• Truncation and Wildcards
• Case sensitivity

General Overview

Use OLS to search the collections of EPA's 28 libraries across the country. These collections include EPA publications, government reports, books, journals, videos and more. This form will also search for additional EPA publications and technical reports that are available from the National Technical Information Service.

You can enter words or numbers in several of the fields at once or just one of the fields. You don't need to capitalize words - the search is not case sensitive.

For example, to find books with the words "carbon monoxide" in the title, enter the words "carbon monoxide" in the Title field: To find books on acid rain written by an author named Smith, enter the term "acid rain" in the Keywords field and "Smith" in the Author field. The fields are automatically connected by the operator "AND," meaning that both the term "acid rain" AND the author "Smith" must be present in the record. (To change this connector, see the section on Searching Multiple Fields, an Advanced Search feature.) You can also change the field that you are searching by choosing a new field name from the drop-down menu on the left side of your screen. That way you can search for several words in the same field.

Once you've entered all of your terms, click on the "Search" button. Your results will be returned to you with 50 items on a page. You can view the next page of results by clicking on the "Down" button, or view the previous page by clicking on the "Up" button. To view more details on a particular item, simply click on the title.

You can also move back to previous screens by using the "Back" feature on your browser. To do a new search, you can click on the "Search" button at the top and bottom of every page.

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Choosing a Specific Library Collection to Search

OLS contains records for the collections of all 28 EPA libraries, as well as EPA publications and technical reports. By default, the system will search all of these collections. If you prefer, you can pick the collection of one library to search.

To search the collection of only one EPA library, choose the name of the library from the drop-down menu at the top of the search screen. Then enter your search and click on the "Search" button. From the Advanced Search screen, you can get even more specific and choose a subcollection of materials to search, such as EPA documents only, books only, or journals only.

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Searching by TITLE

Use this field to search for words or phrases in the titles of documents.

From the Basic search screen, simply enter words in the box labeled "Title" and then click the "Search" button. You will retrieve items that have all of these words in their titles, although they will not necessarily appear as a phrase or in any particular order.

From the Advanced search screen, enter words to search for in the text box labeled "Title," then choose one of the options from the drop-down menu to the right of the box. You can specify that the title of the document must contain all of the words that you entered, any of the words that you entered, or the exact phrase that you entered. Click the "Submit Search" button.

Example: Search in the TITLE field for:

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Searching by KEYWORD

Use this field to do a broad search on a particular topic. The words will not necessarily appear in the title of the document. They could appear in the title, the abstract, or the subject headings of the record. They do, however, all have to be present in the same field (e.g., all within the title field, or all within the abstract).

From the Basic search screen, simply enter words in the box labeled "Keywords" and then click the "Search" button.

From the Advanced search screen, enter words to search for in the text box labeled "Keywords" and then choose one of the searching options from the drop-down menu to the right of the box. You can specify that the document record must contain all of the words that you entered, any of the words that you entered, or the exact phrase that you entered. Click the "Submit Search" button.

Examples:

Example: Search in the KEYWORD field for:

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Searching by AUTHOR

Use this field to search for works by a particular author.

(Note - you can't search for journal articles in OLS.)

From the Basic search screen, enter the author's name in the text box. Enter the full name, just the last name, or the first initial and the last name. Click on the "Search" button.

From the Advanced search screen, enter the author's name in the text box, and then choose one of the searching options from the drop-down menu to the right of the box. You can specify that the document record must contain all of the words that you entered, any of the words that you entered, or the exact phrase that you entered. Click the "Submit Search" button.

The following are all valid entries: Carson Rachel Carson R* Carson (the asterisk is a "wildcard" character - this will search for all words beginning with the letter R.) Example: Search in the AUTHOR field for:

If you are not sure of the form or spelling of the author's name, or if you only remember the first few letters of the name, you can browse the index of all author names in OLS. See the section on Browsing the OLS Indexes for more information.

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Searching by CORPORATE SOURCE

Sometimes a book or report is authored by a group or corporate entity, rather than by one person. Use this field to search for publications by a particular group or corporate source.

From the Basic search screen, enter words in the text box. You can enter as few or as many words from the group name as you know. Click on the "Search" button.

From the Advanced search screen, choose "CORP Source" from any of the field drop-down menus, enter words in the text box, and then choose one of the searching options from the drop-down menu to the right of the box. You can specify that the document record must contain all of the words that you entered, any of the words that you entered, or the exact phrase that you entered. Click the "Submit Search" button.

Examples: University of California Berkeley Environmental Protection Agency Sierra Club Search in the CORP SOURCE field for:

If you are not sure of the form or spelling of the group's name, or if you only remember part of the name, you can browse the index of all corporate author names in OLS. See the section on Browsing the OLS Indexes for more information.

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Searching by OLS Number Fields (Report Number, Call Number, OCLC Number)

Use this field to search for publications by EPA report number, NTIS (National Technical Information Service) Report Number, Call Number, or OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Number. Choose the type of number you want to search for from the drop-down menu.

EPA Report Number:
This number will usually have the format EPA/XXX-X-XX-XXX. You can search for the number with or without the punctuation. (Please note, however, that the punctuation must be EXACT. If you can't find what you're looking for, try it without the punctuation.)

Examples: EPA220R93007 epa/220-r-93-007 epa220* (the asterisk is a "wildcard" character" - this search will retrieve all documents with report numbers that begin with "epa220")

National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Report Number:
Many EPA documents and other federal environmental documents are available from NTIS. These items will have a report number that follows the format PBXXX-XXX or PBXX-XXXXX. Be sure to use the dashes when searching by NTIS number.

Examples: pb97-12345 pb187-965 pb97* (this search will retrieve all documents with NTIS report numbers that begin with "pb97")

Call Number
This number is usually the Library of Congress Call Number assigned to a book. You must search for the number with the punctuation.

Examples: ge180.m68 GE180.M68 gf41.g67 1993

OCLC Number You can search for an item by its unique Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) Number.

Examples: 28413039 26634970

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Searching by Year of Publication

Use this field to limit your search to a particular year or range of years.

Enter a four-digit year into the text box and then choose one of the search options from the box to the right. You can choose that the year of publication be equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, or less than or equal to, the year that you enter.

You can also search for records published within a particular time frame. Enter two four-digit years with a colon in the middle. For example, to search for documents published between 1990 and 1995, enter this in the text box: 1990:1995.

Examples: In the YEAR PUBLISHED field, enter:

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Searching the Subject Field

Use this field to search the subject headings of a record. Choose "Subjects" from the drop down menu on the search screen and type the subject term in the text box. From the Advanced Search screen, you can specify that the subject field must contain all of the words that you entered, any of the words that you entered, or the exact phrase that you entered. (The Basic Search screen will automatically require that all of the words be present.) Click the "Submit Search" button.

You can search using Library of Congress Subject Headings. Be sure to include the proper spacing and punctuation.

Example: To search for records under the subject of "Industrial hygiene -- Problems" (a Library of Congress Subject Heading), enter this term in the Subject field:

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