Perform an Advanced Search

Do you want to learn how to perform an Advanced Search?  Click the Advanced Search button, located to the right of the Search button, as shown below.  

An Advanced Search dialog opens, as shown below.

In the first drop-down list, select from one of the following: Author, ISBN, Keyword, Note, Subject, Tag, Title, or UPC.  If Tag is not shown, you will not be able to utilize this option.  For additional information on searching for Tags, see the Tips section below.  

In the next drop-down list, select Exactly Match or Begins With.  Type your search term in the blank field box.  If you would like to group your search terms, select the ( and ) check boxes.  Next, click the Search button or if you would like to add another search criterion, click the plus sign button.  You can add up to four rows of search criteria.      

If you select the plus sign, a new row appears as shown in the example below.

In the first drop-down list, select from one of the following: And, Or, or Not.  Then select a choice from the other two drop-down lists, followed by typing a search term in the blank field box.  If would like to group your search terms, select the ( and ) check boxes.  Next, click the plus sign to add another row or click Search to retrieve your results.   

If you are using more than two rows of search criteria, it is highly recommended to group the rows by selecting the appropriate ( and ) check boxes, as this will impact the results you are looking for.  By using the example below, your library will search for titles that begin with weather or titles that match the subject of thunderstorms, however, those with a subject of thunderstorms must also have a title of lightning.  Then out of those results, the titles cannot have a subject of meteorology.  By using the same example but without selecting the grouping ( and ) check boxes, your library would search for titles that contain lightning for either weather or thunderstorms.  Then out of those results, the titles cannot have a subject of meteorology.

Tips!

• To quickly change an Advanced Search from an Exactly Match to Begins With on the titles search page, add an asterisk after the last letter in the Search field box, as shown in the example below.  

• To quickly change an Advanced Search from a Begins With to an Exactly Match on the titles search page, remove the asterisk in the Search field box, as shown in the example below.  

• To search for a term similar in spelling, select Keyword | Exact Match and in the field box type your term, then place a tilde (~) at the end of your term.  For example, if you type cabby~, you might retrieve results for crabby, gabby, nabby, tabby, cabal, as shown below.

• You can only search multiple word tags that begin with the first word.  To find the titles with the tags shown in the example below, you would select Tag | Contains and in the field box type only Harry.  However, if you typed any of the following: Potter or Harry Potter, you would not retrieve any results.

Additionally, you cannot search tags containing multiple words.  As an example, if you select Tag | Exact Match and in the field box type Harry Potter you would not retrieve any results.  For best results when searching tags, type: tag:"[your multiple tag words]" on the titles search page.  An example is shown below.