====== Basic Search ======

Most people search by entering a few words into the basic search screen.  Depending on how they get to the basic search screen, the scope may be set to all NOBLE, or may be set to a library.  The keyword index includes all authors, titles, subject headings, and notes. 

The staff equivalent of this it to enter a few words in the search box on the staff client portal page, or to enter the words in the first line of the Advanced Search page.  The difference in the staff client is that the search box is set to search all NOBLE, and the Advanced Search screen by default may search either your library or NOBLE depending on your settings.

In this search example, we're asking the system to show us every title that has the words **brooklyn** and **bridge** anywhere in the record.

===== General Rules for Word Searching =====
 
  * Capitalization never matters 
  * There are no special words: A, An, The, And, Not, Or, etc., are all searched as words
  * Truncation uses the asterisk: teach* will find teach, teaches, teacher, teachers, teaching, etc.
  * Hyphens and slashes are treated like spaces 
  * Apostrophes are ignored
  * Use quotes to search as phrase

===== Ways to Improve the Search =====

There are several options you can use to make your search more specific and reduce the number of titles on the search results list, making it easier to find just what you’re looking for.  

==== Phrase Searching ====

Phrase searching is useful for search terms that have a special meaning when they appear together in a certain order, for example: New England, Peace Corps, national debt, climate change.  Phrase searching will eliminate extraneous hits where the words appear in a record but not together. Word order and punctuation matter in a phrase search.  Word order and punctuation matter when you are searching with quotes: **"President Kennedy"** will not find **President John F. Kennedy** or **Kennedy, John F.**

You can put quotation marks around words to indicate that they are a phrase, or you can choose the **Contains Phrase** option in the new staff catalog, or the Advanced Search screen of the public catalog or the old staff catalog

{{ :newcatphrase.png?direct | Phrase Search}}

==== Query Type ====

Most searches are entered as **Keyword**, which searches almost every word in the record, including lengthy summaries and contents notes.  Changing the search type to **Author**, **Title**, **Subject**, etc., can eliminate a lot of irrelevant hits. 

For each of the Author, Title and Subject query types, the system is searching for records that have your words anywhere in fields of those types in the record.  All of these field types have variations, Author and Added Author for example, and all of these fields are repeatable (you can have many authors or subject headings in a record.  

The Author index includes editors, illustrators, actors, directors, performers, narrators, organizations and other people who were involved in the creation of the product.  

Using a specific index often results in a faster, more precise search, but you may have a problem with an author or subject search if your search terms don’t match those in an official Library of Congress heading

We have separate indexes for **Series Title** and **Journal Title** -- these indexes are much better options than Title if you’re search for a series or journal title.  

This is especially useful when you’re looking for a magazine like **Time** or **Better Homes and Gardens** that has published lots of books in addition to the magazines
Not all books in a series may have series entries.

Both the **ISBN** and **Keyword** index on the Basic Search screen will work for both 10 and 13 digit equivalent ISBNs, even if only one version of the ISBN is actually in the record.  ISBN searching also works with or without hyphens.  

=== Filtering by Format ===

If you know you are only interested in finding books or DVDs, etc., always specify a format.  The list includes both specific formats and groups of formats.  For example, the **Book (All)** includes regular print books, large type books, audiobooks, ebooks, etc., which you can also search for specifically.  

==== Scoping ====

Scoping is one of the easiest ways to limit your search results.  We have organization unit scopes for each "library system" and each library "branch."  This is Evergreen terminology: Beverly Public Library is a library system and Beverly Main and Beverly Farms are both branches.  You can search at either the system or branch level.

We also have shelving location group scopes for adult, teen, and children’s collections for each public library.  Because these are built from shelving locations, these department scopes only include physical items, they do not include electronic resources.  

We also have shelving location group scopes for all public libraries, all academic libraries, all adult locations, all teen locations and all children's locations.  These also only include physical items, not electronic resources.

==== Exclude Terms ====

You can exclude words or phrases from your search by entering them with a minus sign, no space, like this: apple -computer. This means "find me any record with the word apple in it, except the ones that also include the word computer."