There are two search engines you can use to search books, articles and library resources. The "Basic" Search engine is available on the library homepage. You will also find the Basic Search in the ASA Catalog. The second search engine, Advanced Search, can be accessed by using the Advanced Search link in both places. Below is documentation about both the Basic and Advanced search screens so you can compare their capabilities.
Basic Search
The basic search lets you put in a single search line that searches a particular field option. For example, you can select “title” from a dropdown list. The basic search is the first search box you will find at the library homepage and in the catalog.
In this type of searching, you can have a single search line that searches a particular field such as title. Or you can select “keyword” to search for your term(s) in multiple places in the record.
You can search on a term or combine them with Boolean operators. This brings up “records”, which are search results with information about items in the library. If you do not use any Boolean operators, the terms you enter will be searched as if there were an AND between them.
Common Operators
AND - both terms must be included in the record: currency AND exchange
OR - either term can be included in the record: india OR china
NOT - the term after NOT will not be included in the record: painter NOT art
You should use NOT sparingly, as it can remove relevant results.
You can also do “nesting” in your search. Items within parentheses are first searched, and then combined:
There are many other operators you can use to define how your terms should appear in the results.
Advanced Search
Advanced search lets you specify different fields to search.
Search Fields
Type your search terms into a box and choose from the dropdown the field you want to search.
Click Add Search Field to search on a new field
Choose a Match on the right side to change the operator between lines:
“ALL Terms” (AND) - Results will match every row.
“ANY Terms” (OR) - Results will match at least one row.
“NO Terms” (NOT) - All rows are excluded from your results.
Search Groups
Add a Search Group to combine a uniquely different query, or perform more complex, nested searches.
When you click Add Search Group, a new Match dropdown will appear in the upper right of the Search boxes. Your dropdown selection will apply to all Search Groups.
You are limited to one Match within one search group. For example, if your match is AND but you want to have OR or NOT within your search group, type those operators within lines of your search group.
Search Operators List
Certain letters and symbols represent new functions when typed into a search field.
Search Operators will work in Basic and Advanced Searches.
Wildcard, single character: ?
literat? will search “literate” and “literati”
wom?n will search “woman” and “women”
Wildcard, multi-character: *
test* will search “tests” “testers” “testing”, and more
col*r will search “color”, “colour”, "collaborator", and more
Phrase searching
Use quotation marks (“ “) to make sure a phrase appears in the results, with both terms beside each other in the specified order: “exchange rate”.
Alternate Spellings: ~
Add the tilde ~ at the end of a single word term to search multiple spellings of that word.
Tchaikovsky~ may also return a result that spells it Tchaikowsky
color~ will also return results that have colour
Proximity between words: ~
Add the tilde ~ to a multiple word term to define how close the two words should appear in the record. Add an integer after the tilde to define how many words at most are in between your terms.
Example: “boys hood”~2 will return results such as “boys in the hood”, where boys and hood are at most 2 words (in the) apart
Priority Searching
Add priority to a term by using the operator: ^
Example: girl OR scout^5
will tend to search any record that contains girl or scout (and both girl and scout), but records that contain only scout will appear first in your result list. Use an integer from 1 to 10 to increase priority. If only using one priority term, we suggest using 5. If you are adding priority to multiple terms, keep in mind the relative scale: bigger numbers are higher priority.
Ranged Searches: [ TO ] and { TO }
To search a date range, enter your date in brackets [ ]
Example: [1980 TO 1982] will search for all dates including 1980, 1981, 1982
To search for words that begin with a certain letter, use the curly bracket { }
Example: {A TO C} will search any term that begins with A, B, or C
