Advanced Searching - Library Catalog

Intro

This tutorial covers an overview of searching strategies for using our library catalog. Use the arrows below to progress through the tutorial at your own pace.

Click Next to continue.

 

Basic Keyword Searching

While most users will search using simple keywords, there are a few tricks which will help users refine their search results. Note that natural language keywords (e.g., asking a question) will not provide reliable results. Perform a search for:

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Over 20,000 results to sort through!. The first option to refine results is to use the facets on the left to narrow according your desired filter (author, year, format, etc.).

The PALNI filter stands for the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana. That's a consortium to which Marian belongs. Clicking that facet will show items at only those libraries, which can be requested or even loaned onsite with your Marian University ID card.

Advanced Searching

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In order to get more focused, narrow results, here are some tricks to use for expanding or narrowing your searches, according to your topic.

First, try using a phrase search. This involves using quotation marks to connect multiple keywords into a phrase. Try searching the following phrase at the top search box:

"saint thomas aquinas"

Note the reduction in results.

Advanced Searching

2 of 2Now let's learn about Boolean Operators. These are the words

AND / OR / NOT

that reduce, expand, and exclude these keywords and phrases in searches. Try the following search string:

"saint thomas aquinas" AND "summa theologica"

Next, compare the results using OR and NOT in the same search.

Also, use the asterisk * to retrieve results based on different variations of word spelling.Try searching the following:

"summa theolog*"

Using Index Values

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In addition, searches can be completed using specific characters codes for certain indexes (format, year, author, title, etc.) in the catalog. 

Some of the more useful codes include:

author = au:

title = ti:

year = yr:

publisher = pb:

keyword = kw:

series: = se:

Try a search for all the works of the author au:"Steven Pinker" we have in the collection vs. a keyword search for the words Steven Pinker. How many results are returned for each, with and without quotations in the search?

Using Index Values

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One helpful approach to find records related to particular search topics is to use subject headings. Perform a search for the title:

ti:Plastic Ocean

Click on the title link for the first result by Moore and Phillips. Notice the Description heading, and click on the drop-down triangle. These are subject headings which will retrieve more records related to the selected topic. These headings can also be searched using the index value su:. Click the link for for Plastics Environmental aspects. Note that your search is listed in the search box.

su:Plastics Environmental aspects.

Using Index Values

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One trick to finding items such as ebooks is to perform a search with the following syntax:

mt:ebk

Perform a search with the string

au:"michio kaku" mt:ebk

How many ebook records are retrieved that have the author Michio Kaku listed as a author or contributor? How many do we have access to?

Using Index Values

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All of these values can be added in the search box for a particular search string. Say you've heard that there's an author by the name of Atwood who's written a trilogy of science fiction works. Try a search for: 

au:atwood se:trilogy su:science fiction

What are the titles in this series?

More Advanced Searching

Parentheses can be another element to help focus searches. This character allows searches-within-searches to be completed for discovery of more refined or complex research topics.Try Searching the following search string:

(anthropocene OR "Great Acceleration") AND ("carbon dioxide" OR acidification) AND biodiversity

It may look complicated, but it's not; it just combines a couple of sets of phrases (relating mass extinction with other variables) within another affected topic.

How does switching the AND above  to OR affect the results? 

The End

Thank you for using our library catalog tutorial. Feel free to contact the library at librarystaff@marian.edu with any questions about this guide.

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