The following searching tools and techniques can narrow or broaden your search.
Searching Using Operators
Boolean, positional, and relational operators allow you to focus your search by linking search terms and
defining the relationship between them. Refer to Operators for specific
information about using operators.
Precise Phrase Searching
e-catalog allows a set of terms to be marked as a single phrase by enclosing the expression in single
quotes. This enclosed search expression must be matched in the catalog exactly as typed in the search
field.
Nesting
e-catalog allows search expressions to be grouped or nested using parentheses. e-catalog searches the
expression located in the innermost set of parentheses first, and then continues the search, moving
outward to the terms at the edges of the expression.
Searching Specified Entries
Every record in the library's database has a particular format consisting of standard entry tags. e-catalog
allows a search to be limited to certain fields and entries within a bibliographic record. Refer to
Specified Entries for more information about searching fields and entries
within a bibliographic record.
Searching Keyword Index Synonyms
Similar to searching by specifying entry tags, e-catalog allows one or more of these entry tags to be
represented with a keyword index synonym name (such as AU for author or TI for title). Refer
to Keyword Index Synonyms for more information about searching by this method.
Searching Catalog Keys
Bibliographic records can be searched by their internal database catalog key (CKEY).
Any of the following searches will retrieve records based on their catalog keys.
Stopwords
e-catalog ignores specified words when searching the catalog, allowing e-catalog to search on the keywords of
an expression. These “stopwords” are usually articles, prepositions, or conjunctions. They are: a, an, but, for, in, is,
of, the, & to. Enclose your expression in double quotation marks to prevent the stopwords from being ignored.
Searching Using Substitution and Truncation
e-catalog allows the symbols ? and $ to be used to represent substitution and truncation. Refer
to Substitution and Truncation for more information about searching by this
method.
Searching Numbers in a List
To individually search numbers in a list, you must type a space between each number. e-catalog searches
numbers separated by commas as if the numbers were not separated. The following examples may help you
search numbers in a list.
Searching Bound-with Items
The library's catalog may contain "bound-with" items, which is an item that consists of several titles
bound together as one physical item. One of the titles is considered the parent title; the remaining
titles are the children. The catalog can be searched for any of the children titles as well as the
parent title, even if the system does not have a copy record for any of the titles.
For example, if your library catalog included a "Wizard of Oz" bound-with item, it might include the following items.
The book might be the parent item, with the other two items listed as children. Although all three items are bound together, each one can be searched separately in the library catalog.
Searching Special Characters
Your library's catalog supports 256 characters in its full bibliographic record. However, not all
terminals can display all 256 characters. Refer to Special Characters for
more information on transliterated characters and the replacement characters to use when searching a
term containing a transliterated character.
Generating a Browse List
To see a browse list of possible search matches, leave the Search For field
blank, or type in the first part of the search term.
Viewing a Series in Chronological Order
Although many series do not contain a number in their title, it is possible to use the "sort" option to view the titles
in chronological order. In Advanced Search, select "Old to New" under "sort by".
More About Searching in iBistro
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