Search the library for books, movies, music, and more.

Keyword Searching

Browse Searching

Advanced Searching

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 exact matches to the text. Other keyword searches narrow the search for the keyword only in the author, subject, title, or other specific fields.

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

• Click Search on the menu bar, and click Keyword in the Search submenu.

• 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.

If you want to set limits on your search, or sort the results by two categories, follow these steps:

• Click Open Search Options.
• Select the settings you want.
• Click [SET_SEARCH_OPTIONS].
• 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 (refer to "Wildcard Characters").
• 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 10digit 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.
• Click [GO].
  • When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.

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Browse Searching

A browse search displays the portion of a selected headings index which begins with the text you type. For example, to browse the author index for any work by William Shakespeare, you can type shakespeare or part of the word, such as shake, and select Author as the index. The browse search results display the portion of the author index containing headings that begin with the text you entered. You can browse to see other portions of the index.

Browse the author, subject, or series index

When you browse the author, subject, or series search indexes, the results list displays index headings. You browse through the headings and select one to display the titles associated with it.

Follow these steps to browse the author, subject, or series index.

• Select Search on the menu bar, and select Browse in the search submenu.
• Type the name of the author, the subject word, or the series name in the Browse search for box, keeping in mind the following tips:
  • Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored.
  • You do not need to type all of the index heading. Type enough of the index heading to make the search unique to the items you want to find.
  • You can type the whole name of an author using the format last name first name.
• Select Author, Subject, or Series from the Search by list.
• Click [GO].

• When the search is finished, the search results list displays author, subject, or series headings. The column headed # displays the number of titles associated with each heading.

• Navigate the headings index using one of these methods:
  • Click <<Previous 10 headings or Next 10 Headings>> to see previous or subsequent portions of the index.
  • The headings may include cross-reference links that refer you to alternative headings. Click a cross-reference link to go to the portion of the index that displays the referenced term.
• Click a heading to display the list of associated titles.

Note:
To return to the headings list, click Go back to: Browse Results.

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Browse the title index

When you browse the title index, the results list displays the portion of the entire alphabetical title index that contains your text as the beginning of the title. You can browse to see preceding and subsequent portions of the title index. Follow these steps to browse for titles.

• Click Search on the menu bar, and click Browse in the Search submenu.
• Type the title text in the Browse search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
  • Letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation are ignored.
  • You do not need to type all of the index heading. Type enough of the index heading to make the search unique to the items you want to find.
  • Initial articles such as a, an, and the are ordinarily ignored, unless the article is a significant part of the title. For example, to find the title A is for Alibi, you could type a is for.
• Select Title from the Search by list.
• Click [GO].

• A portion of the title index displays titles near the text you entered in the Browse for box.

• Click <<Previous 10 Titles or Next 10 Titles>> to see previous or subsequent portions of the index.

Note:
To return to the headings list, click Go back to: Browse Results.

Browse the call number index:

When you browse a call number index, the results list displays the portion of the entire catalog that is designated by the call number you specified. For example, if you type 921, the results display the titles in the portion of the index that are shelved together as call number 921. You can browse to see other portions of the call number index in order.

• Click Search on the menu bar, and click Browse in the Search submenu.
• Select a call number option from the Search by list:
  • Select Dewey to browse the Dewey classification call number index of the bibliographic records in the library system.
• Select a library to search, and click [SET_SEARCH_OPTIONS].
• Type the first character or characters of the call number in the Browse search for box, keeping these rules in mind:
  • LC call numbers begin with one or two alphabetic characters (letters). Dewey call numbers begin with numbers. Any particular library may use either classification scheme.
  • You do not need to type the entire call number. Type enough of the number to make the search unique to the items you want to find.
  • Omit any prefix, such as Ref. Click [GO].

  • A portion of the call number index displays titles in the index near the call number you entered in the Browse for box. The titles are sorted in ascending alphabetical (LC) or numerical (Dewey) order.

• Click <<Previous 10 Titles or Next 10 Titles>> to see previous or subsequent portions of the index.

Note:
To return to the headings list, click Go back to: Browse Results.

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Advanced Searching

With advanced searching, you can do a complex, focused keyword search, combining up to four search terms and selecting a search field for each one. You can set search options to limit an advanced search, and you can search multiple databases. You do not need to know any special programming language to do advanced searching.

Advanced searching combines search terms with connector words called logical operators, or Boolean operators. The operators And, Or, and Not determine how the search terms are combined:

• And - Search results must match two search terms, the one before the operator and the one after the operator.

Example:
A search for Subject: planets And Author: Asimov returns only the works written by Asimov about planets. Any works about planets by other writers and any works by Asimov about other subjects are ignored.

• Or - Search results can match the search term before the operator, the search term after the operator, or both search terms.

Example:
A search that specifies Any field: planets Or Author: Asimov returns all works written by Asimov, as well as all works containing the word planets in any search field.These last works include titles by Isaac Asimov and titles by other authors.

• Not - Search results must match the search term before the operator, but not the search term after the operator.

Example:
A search that specifies Any field: planets Not Author: Asimov returns works containing the word planets in any search field, except works by Asimov.

Do an advanced search

With advanced searching, you can build a complex search and modify it by setting search options. Follow these steps to do an advanced search.

• Select Search on the menu bar, and select Advanced from the submenu.

  • The Advanced search bar appears.

• If you want to select a different database or multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and select databases to search (see "Search multiple databases").
• Click the first Any field arrow symbol, and select a search field from the list. For search field descriptions, see "Search for a keyword".
• Type the search text in the empty box next to the first field, keeping in mind the following rules:
  • Polaris PowerPAC ignores letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation. Omit hyphens in numbers.
  • You can input part of a word or number and use a wildcard character. For more information, see "Wildcard Characters".
• Click the And arrow symbol, and select one of the following operators to combine the first term with the next term:
  • Select And to specify that the results must match both the first term and the next term.
  • Select Or to specify that the results must match the first term, or the second term, or both.
  • Select Not to specify that the results must match the first term, but must not match the second term.
• Click the second Any field arrow symbol, select a search field from the list, and type the second term in the empty box next to the second field.
• If you want to set another pair of search terms, repeat steps 3-6.

  • When the search is launched, multiple search terms are processed in pairs; then the pairs are combined.

• If you want to set limits on your search, you can scroll the page to use any or all of these search options:
  • Libraries
  • Publication dates
  • Formats or material types
  • Target audiences
  • Languages
  • Sorting

    See "Setting Search Options".

• Click [PERFORM_SEARCH].

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

Important:
Search options retain the settings you make throughout your session, unless you reset them to the default values. The link Change Search Options on the search bar indicates that search options are set to values different from the default values.

• To reset the search options to their default values, do one of the following actions:
  • Click [RESET_SEARCH_OPTIONS] on the advanced search bar.
  • Click Change Search Options on the keyword or phrase search bar, and click [RESET_SEARCH_OPTIONS].

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