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Keyword Searching

The online library catalog contains thousands of records. Each record represents one title, such as a book. Within each title record, separate fields contain specific information about the work, such as the title, author, and subject. You can search these fields for keywords.

A keyword search in any field looks in all the search fields of the library catalog to find the keyword text. Other keyword searches narrow the search for the keyword to the author, subject, title, or other specific fields.

Objective: Search for a keyword

Follow these steps to find titles containing your text in any field, or in a selected field, of the library catalog.

  1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Keyword in the Search submenu.
  2. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list.

Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD in the Limit by list.

  1. If you want to search a database other than the library, or select multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and choose the databases.

    For more information, see "Selecting Search Databases".

  2. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than Most Popular, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select Author, Title, Call Number, or Publication Date.

    The Most Popular option sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.

  3. If you want to set limits on your search, or sort the results by two categories, follow these steps:
    1. Click Open Search Options.
    2. Select the settings you want.
    3. Click Set Search Options.

Note:
You can limit a keyword search by library location, publication date, physical item material type, language, or target audience, and specify two categories for sorting search results. For more information, see "Setting Search Options". If your library offers course reserves, you can limit your search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course reserve items only check box, or set the equivalent Search Option. For more information, see "Find an item on reserve".

  1. Type the text to search for in the Keyword search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
    • Polaris PowerPAC ignores letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation entered in the search for box. Omit hyphens in numbers.
    • You can type part of a word and use a wildcard character, such as * (refer to "Wildcard Characters").

Note:
You can type more than one word in the Keyword search for box. The results are titles that have all the words in the specified field, in any order. However, you cannot do a complex search which uses logical operators (And, Or, Not) as a keyword search. (For more information about searching with these operators, see "Complex Searching".) If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), your results will include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.

  1. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list:
    • Any Field - All the indexed information fields
    • Title - Title fields
    • Author - Author fields
    • Subject - Subject fields
    • General notes - Notes fields
    • Publisher - Publisher field
    • Genre - Forms or types of materials, such as science fiction, romance, biography, bibliography, or large type books
    • Series - Series fields
    • ISBN - International Standard Book Number, a 13digit number that is assigned to a specific book or edition of a book when it is published
    • ISSN - International Standard Serial Number, an 8digit number with an optional letter code that uniquely identifies a serial title
    • LCCN - Library of Congress Control Number
    • Publisher No. - Publisher's number, the unique identifier assigned to the publishers of sound recordings, video recordings, printed sheet music, and other musical works
    • SuDoc - Superintendent of Documents classification number (identifier) assigned to government documents. The identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
    • CODEN - Identifier for scientific and technical periodical titles. The six-character identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
    • STRN - Standard technical report number (identifier) assigned according to ISO 10444 or NISO Z39.23 standards. The identifier can consist of letters and numbers.
  2. Click Go.

    When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.

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