Phrase and Exact Phrase Searches

A phrase search looks for matches to multiple words, in the same order you typed them. You might choose a phrase search when you know the phrase is part of a specific title.

Your library may offer one or two types of phrase searching. A basic phrase search ignores many common articles and prepositions, such as a, an, and, for, from, in, of, on, the, to, and with. An exact phrase search looks for the exact phrase, from beginning to end, and keeps all the words in the search request.

Examples:
For a phrase search, you select Phrase from the Search submenu. You type gone with the wind in the Search for box, and select Title in the Search by box. The results may include Gone with the Wind, Gone from the Wind, and Gone in the Wind, because the search pays no attention to the words with and the. (However, the results do not include titles like The Wind Is Gone).

For an exact phrase search, you select Exact from the Search submenu. You type gone with the wind in the Search For box, and select Title in the Search By box. The results include only Gone with the Wind, not Gone from the Wind or Gone in the Wind, because the exact phrase search keeps the words with and the.

Search for a phrase or an exact phrase

Follow these steps to find titles containing a specified phrase in any field or a selected field of the library catalog.

1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Phrase or Exact in the Search submenu.

Note:
For examples showing the difference between phrase and exact phrase searching, see "Phrase and Exact Phrase Searches".

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. Your library may provide additional limiters, such as availability.

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

Note:
If your library handles course reserves, you can limit your search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course reserve items only check box. For more information, see "Find an item on reserve".

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

   See "Selecting Search Databases".

4. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than the one displayed, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select a sorting option.

   Relevance sorts titles in the search results so that those that seem most likely to meet your needs appear first in the list. Most Popular 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.

   When you select a sorting option that combines two categories, the results are sorted by the first category, then by the second.

5. If you want to limit the search by library location, publication date, physical item material type, language, or target audience, or set the number of titles that appear on each search results page, follow these steps:
   1. Click Open Search Options.
   2. Select the settings you want.
   3. Click Set Search Options.

      See "Focusing Searches".

6. Type the words to search for in the Phrase search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
   • Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between): + # % $
   • You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women.
   • If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), the search is launched and your results include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.
7. Select a field to search in the Search by box:
   • Any Field - All the indexed information fields (phrase only)
   • Author - Author fields (phrase and exact phrase)
   • Subject - Subject fields (phrase and exact phrase)
   • Title - Title fields (phrase and exact phrase)
   • General notes - Notes fields (phrase only)
   • Publisher - Publisher field (phrase only)
   • Series - Series fields (phrase and exact phrase)
   • Genre - Forms or types of materials, such as science fiction, romance, biography, bibliography, or large type books (phrase only)
8. Click Go.
   • If the search is successful, information about titles is displayed in the search results list.

Note:
Some searches may find thousands of titles. You can focus searches before you launch them to yield fewer but more useful titles. See "Focusing Searches".

• If no matches are found, you see a message. You may also see a Did you mean suggestion. You can click the suggestion to search for the suggested term.

Note:
You may also see a more link next to the suggestion. Click the link to see more suggestions.

9. To work with the results, do any of the following actions:
   • Navigate the results list and view more information about the titles. See "Viewing Title Information".
   • Narrow your search results or do related searches. See "Narrowing or Widening Results".
   • Add a title to a title list. See "Working with Search Results".
   • Place a request for a title, or purchase a title. See "Obtaining Materials".

Related Information

• Additional search methods - See the following topics:
  • "Quick Searches"
  • "Keyword Searches"
  • "Advanced Searches"
  • "Boolean Searches"
  • "Browsing the Catalog"
  • "Automatic Searches"
• Course reserves - If your library holds items reserved for courses at a school or college, you may be able to search for course reserve information and materials. See "Finding Course Reserves".