Focusing Searches

You can set search options to limit and focus your search by certain characteristics before you start the search.

Example:
You do a keyword subject search on astronomy that yields 1,000 entries. You are looking for recent information, but many of the titles were published years ago. You can limit the search by publication date, so that the results show only items published from 2004 to the present.

You can focus your search using the following options:

• Libraries - You can specify which system libraries to search.
• Publication dates - You can restrict the search to items published in a certain year or range of years.
• Material types - You can limit your search to certain library-defined material types for the physical items the library owns. For example, if you are only interested in pamphlets in the library's collection, you can limit the search to pamphlets.
• Target audience - You can search for titles intended only for specific audiences, such as children or young adults. (Not all bibliographic records include target audience information.)
• Languages - You can limit searches to titles published in a specific language or languages, for example, English, French, German, or Spanish.

You can also control how many titles appear on each results page with the Display results per page option.

This unit covers the following topic:

• "Set search options"

Set search options

You can set any combination of options to focus a search before you start it, and set how many titles you want to see on each search results page. Follow these steps to set search options for focusing a search.

1. Select a search method (for example, Keyword) from the Search submenu.

Note:
Search options are not available for quick searches or when you browse the catalog.

2. Select Open Search Options to display the search options. You may need to scroll the page to see all the options.

Tip:
To select several consecutive items in a list, hold down the SHIFT key as you select the items. To select several items that are not listed together, hold down the CTRL key as you select the items.

3. To specify a library site or sites to search, scroll the Libraries list, if necessary, and select a library site.
4. To specify publication dates for limiting your search, scroll the Publication Dates list, if necessary, and select a date or range of dates.

Tip:
You can exclude items from a search. Select them from the appropriate list, and click the Exclude check box below the list.

5. To specify detailed material types for limiting your search, scroll the Detailed Material Type list, if necessary, and select a material type.

Important:
Detailed material types are defined by the library for the physical items the library owns. The formats in the Limit by box on the search bar refer to general formats and types of materials associated with title entries in the catalog. You can limit a search by format or detailed material type, but not both. If you selected a format in the Limit by box when you set up your search, your format choice is canceled when you set a material type.

6. To specify a target audience or audiences for limiting your search, scroll the Target Audiences list, if necessary, and select a target audience.
7. To specify a language or languages for limiting your search, scroll the Languages list, if necessary, and select a language.
8. To set the number of titles that appear on each search results page, select a number in the Display results per page list. Lower numbers are displayed on each page more quickly, but the search results consist of more pages. Higher numbers take more time to be displayed.
9. Click Set Search Options.

   The search bar displays the Change Search Options link, indicating that search options have been set.

Note:
If you want to minimize scrolling the page, click Close Search Options.

10. Type the text to search for. For tips, see "Search for a keyword".
11. Click the Search by arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list.
12. Click Go.

    When the search is finished, the results list is displayed.

13. To reset the search options to their default values, click Reset Search Options.

    The options are reset. The search is done again, using the default values.

Important:
Search options retain their settings until you reset them to the default values or go to the home page. The links Change Search Options and Reset Search Options on the search bar indicate that search options are set to values different from the default values.

Related Information

You can also narrow your search results after you do the search. See "Narrow your search results".