Advanced Search Basics
Advanced Search gives you much more flexibility when creating more complex searches. Boxes and dropdowns are provided to help you structure your search.

1. Search for - identify what type of resource are you searching for:
- Everything (any and all resources in the collection)
- Books (print and ebooks)
- Print books
- Articles (from the databases)
- Videos (DVDs and streaming video)
- Course Reserves
You can also select from the "Materials Type" dropdown.
or leave it at Everything (All items)
2. Build your search.
Use the dropdowns to help structure your search phrases. (optional)
The first box, defaulted to "Any Field", limits your results to Title, Author, Subject, etc. or leave it "Any Field" to search them all.
The second box, defaulted to "Contains", to help define your search terms:
- contains – Returns results that contain all words in the phrase, but the words may be in a different order and may not be as close together. -- it is recommended that you leave it as "contains" if you plan to use Boolean operators in your search string.
- is (exact) – Returns results that contain phrases that exactly match the phrases specified in the query.
- starts with – Returns results that contain words that start with the specified string. This type performs left-anchored title searches only.
Multiple search lines are connected using Boolean operators (AND, OR, or NOT). Click on "+ADD A NEW LINE" to add additional search lines. More about Boolean Operators, using Wildcards, searching phrases and nesting
Enter your search terms (single words, phrases or complex search string using Boolean operators)
3. Select the date range (optional)
4. Click SEARCH