How Do I…

Searching using Operators allows you to focus your search by linking search terms and defining the relationship between them.

• Boolean operators
• positional operators
• relational operators

Some operators take precedence over others when searching the catalog; refer to operator precedence for more information.

In addition, the e-library will not allow you to search for operators when they are at the beginning or end of a search expression and not enclosed in double quotation marks.

Boolean Operators

Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR, XOR) locate records containing matching terms in one of the specified fields, both of the specified fields, or all of the specified fields. Use Boolean operators to connect words or phrases between more than one text field, or use Boolean operators to connect words or phrases within a text field.

• Use the AND operator to locate records containing all of the specified search terms. For example, if you search under “dogs AND cats”, the e-library locates records containing all of the specified terms.
• Use the OR operator to locate records matching any or all of the specified terms. For example, if you search under “dogs OR cats”, the e-library locates records containing either the first search term or the second.
• Use the NOT operator to locate records containing the first search term but not the second. For example, if you search under “dogs NOT cats”, the e-library locates records containing the first search term but not the second.
• Use the XOR (exclusive or) operator to locate records matching any of the specified terms but not all of the specified terms. For example, if you search under “dogs XOR cats”, the e-library locates records matching any one of the specified terms but not all of the specified terms.

Positional Operators

Positional operators (SAME, WITH, NEAR, ADJ) locate records in which the search terms are in close proximity within the same bibliographical record. Positional operators can be used to connect words or phrases within a search field but not between search fields.

• Use the SAME or WITH operator to locate records in which a bibliographic record field contains all of the specified terms. For example, if you search under “Chicago SAME history”, only records containing both “Chicago” and “history” within the same bibliographic field will be retrieved.
• Use the NEAR operator to locate records in which a field contains all of the search terms next to each other; however, the order of the terms does not have to match the order they were entered. For example, if you search under “Chicago NEAR history”, only records with the terms “Chicago” and “history” next to each other within the same bibliographic field would be retrieved from this search. “Chicago” or “history” could display first in the field.
• Use the ADJ operator to locate records in which a field contains all of the search terms adjacent to each other and in the order they were entered. For example, if you search under “Chicago ADJ history”, only records with the terms “Chicago” and “history” adjacent to each other within the same bibliographic field and with “Chicago” listed first in this field would be retrieved from this search.
• In addition, you may append a number to the positional operators NEAR and ADJ to limit or broaden the proximity between words. For example, “FROM ADJ1 HERE ADJ2 ETERNITY” shows how to search for the title, “From Here to Eternity.” ADJ2 means that the words may be within two searchable words of each other, but they must be in the order they were entered.

Relational Operators

Relational operators (<, >, =, <>, <=, >=) allow you to search numeral expressions. Use relational operators by enclosing a field name or entry tag number in braces {}, then typing a relational operator and number.

For example, if you type “{DATE} < 991022", SirsiDynix Symphony searches for records whose Date field contains values less than 991022.

Operator Precedence

When the search expression consists of a combination of terms, the order in which these terms are searched can be defined. If two operators are at the same level in the list, the e-library first searches the term at the left, then moves right. Refer to the following list for operator precedence, with the highest listed first.

=
<>
< <= >
>=
NEAR, ADJ
WITH
SAME
AND, NOT
XOR, OR

Precise Phrase Searching allows a set of terms to be marked as a single phrase by enclosing the expression in single quotes. This enclosed search expression must be matched in the catalog exactly as typed in the search field.

Nesting allows search expressions to be grouped or nested using parentheses. The e-library searches the expression located in the innermost set of parentheses first, and then continues the search, moving outward to the terms at the edges of the expression.

Searching Keyword Index Synonyms allows one or more of entry tags to be represented with a keyword index synonym name (such as AU for author or TI for title).

The e-library ignores Stopwords when searching the catalog, allowing the e-library to search on the keywords of an expression. These stopwords are usually articles, prepositions, or conjunctions, such as a, an, as, at, be, but, by, do, for, if, in, it, of, on, the, and to, among others. Enclose your expression in double quotation marks to prevent the stopwords from being ignored.

Searching Using Substitution and Truncation allows the symbols ? and $ to be used to represent substitution and truncation.

These two symbols can be used together or separately, and at the beginning, middle, and end of a term. To literally search these symbols, enclose them with quotation marks.

The ? symbol is used as a substitute for a missing character in a search term, usually when you are unsure of a spelling or when you want to find two forms of one word. For example, if you enter WOM?N, the e-library locates records containing either “woman” or “women.”

The $ symbol is used to truncate search terms and can represent a single characters, many characters, or no characters. If you follow the $ symbol with a number, the e-library limits the number of characters matched. When more than one term in a search expression is truncated, each term is searched for all variations. For example, if you enter JAME$, the e-library locates the specified records containing the terms “Jame,” “James,” “Jameson,” and “Jamerton.”

To individually Search Numbers in a List, you must type a space between each number. The e-library searches numbers separated by commas as if the numbers were not separated. The following examples may help you search numbers in a list.

• The e-library searches 1,2,3,4,5 as a single term.
• The e-library searches 5000 and 5,000 as the same term.
• The e-library searches 1 2 3 4 5 as separate terms.

To see a Browse List of possible search matches, leave the Search For field blank, or type in the first part of the search term.