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Catalogue: Advanced Search: How to

Advanced Search

The standard search function will search everywhere in the Library Catalogue record and look and item of all types and stored anywhere in the library.

If you want to search for just the author's name, the item's title or for a particular item type you can use Advanced Search.

 

Click on the link at the top of the screen to use Advanced Search.

Once you have clicked on the link you are taken to the Advanced Search Screen, where you have the search options explained in the Advanced Search tab below.

At the top and bottom of the screen you have these buttons.

At the top and bottom of the screen your have these three options.

  Search   will submit your search.

  More options    will expand the choice you can make in your advanced search, see the More options tab below for these options.

  New Search    will reset the advanced search page.
 

At the top of the screen you enter the words you want to search for, you can enter as many words as you like in each box.

Use the Keyword drop down menus to choose which part of the item's record to search in.

You can search up to three different  parts of the record and the catalogue will only show items that match all the terms you are looking for. Look in the box to the right for a list of parts of the record you can search.

If you want to use more than three search terms or use OR or NOT in your search try the More Options advanced search.
The middle section is two tabs with tick boxes that you can use to limit the items returned. You can choose as as many or as few of these options as you like.

The first tab lets you chose to search for a particular Item Type. This is usually how long the item can be borrowed for or its format.

Look in the box to the right for a list of item types.

The second tab lets you chose to search for items kept in a particular Shelving  Location. This is where items are stored in the library.

Look in the box to the right for a list of shelving locations.
At the bottom of the screen there are options you can use to restrict your search further.
This will include.
Date Range: You can limit  to only items published in a particular set of years. You can enter a single year or a range such as 2012 - 2017. You can use open ended ranges such as 2012- for everything published in 2012 or after or - 2015 for everything published in or before 2015.
 Language: This is a drop down list of languages that you can choose from. The languages in the list may not reflect what we have in the collection.
Sort: This allows you to choose how your results will be sorted in advance.
 Availability: This is tick box that will make your result only include item that aren't on loan.

At the top of the screen you enter the words you want to search for, you can enter as many words as you like in each box.

Use the Keyword drop down menus to choose which part of the item's record to search in. This will feature all the options that appear in the Search for tab to the right, with additional subdivisions.

The and  dropdown menu will allow you to choose a command on how your search is linked together.

  • And: this is used to make sure this part of your search and any preceding parts of your search are all looked for.
  • Or: this is used to find results that contain either this word or the previous part of your search.
  • Not: this is used to make sure results containing this word are not found.

You can use the  [+] or [-] to add or remove rows in your search.
The middle section is two tabs with tick boxes that you can use to limit the items returned. You can choose as as many or as few of these options as you like.

The first tab lets you chose to search for a particular Item Type. This is usually how long the item can be borrowed for or its format.

Look in the box to the right for a list of item types.

The second tab lets you chose to search for items kept in a particular Shelving  Location. This is where items are stored in the library.

Look in the box to the right for a list of shelving locations.
At the bottom of the screen there are options you can use to restrict your search further. These options should be used with care
This will include.
Date Range: You can limit  to only items published in a particular set of years. You can enter a single year or a range such as 2012 - 2017. You can use open ended ranges such as 2012- for everything published in 2012 or after or - 2015 for everything published in or before 2015.
 Language: This is a drop down list of languages that you can choose from. The languages in the list may not reflect what we have in the collection.
Sort: This allows you to choose how your results will be sorted in advance.
 Availability: This is tick box that will make your result only include item that aren't on loan.
 Audience: This is a drop down list of what sort of audience the item is intended for. This list may not reflect what we have in the collection.
 Content: This is a drop down list of the content the item contain. This list may not reflect what we have in the collection.
 Format : This is a drop down list of the format the item is. This list may not reflect what we have in the collection.
These are the options you can choose from the search dropdown menu in the Advanced Search screen. If you have chosen Further Options some of these might have more options.
Keyword: This will search anywhere in the item's record for your word.
Subject: This will search for what an item is about.
Shelfmark: This will search for the the number that shows what the item is about. Items on a similar subject will be near each other.
Title: This will search for words in the item's title.
Author: This will search for the writer or editor's name.
Publisher: This will search for the publisher's name.
Publisher location: This will search for the city where the publisher is based.
ISBN: This will search for the ISBN of an item. This is a ten or thirteen digit number that will be unique to each item.
Barcode: This will search for the Bradford College barcode at the front of each book. Please add 74 to the number if you want to search for the barcode.

 

These are the items types you can choose from the Advanced Search screen.  They will describe the item type and how long you can borrow it for.
2 week loan: These are books that are kept on the main floor that can be borrowed for two weeks.
2 week loan (DVD): These are our various DVDs and can be borrowed for two weeks.
E-book: These are e-book versions of textbooks and can be access on-line.
Multimedia Item: These are items that accompany books. Such as as audio CDs that accompany language books
Online resource These are items that can be found online.
Reference: These are items that must be used in the Library.
Teacher Training Collection: These are in the Teacher Training location.

 

These are the various locations you can choose from the Advanced Search screen.  They will describe where in the library you can find the item.
Entry Reader: These are books that are intended for people learning to read and speak English.
Film Collection: These are our collection of films on DVD.
Journals: These are items kept in the printed journal collection.
Law reference: These are the the law reference books.
Library Store: These is collection of items that aren't used often but are still useful, please request or ask at the Library desk to use one of these items.
Main Floor: This is the books kept on the ground floor of the David Hockney Building
On-line Resource: These are all our resources that can be accessed on-line.
Reading Zone: These are our collection of books intended to be read for pleasure.
Study Skills Collection: These our a collection of books to help you study effectively or get a job.
Teachng Collection: These are the Teacher Training Collection intended for people learning to teach.
Trinity Green: These are books that are kept at our Trinity Green Library.

 

Hints and Tips

If you are using the catalogue remember the following
Order: The order you type the words in don't matter, if you want to search for a particular phrase you can use "quotation marks."
Common Words: You don't need to enter all the words, just the major ones. This is especially true of words like the or a which are likely to appear in most items records.
Spelling: Make sure you have spelt the words you are looking for right. Some items may have the American spellings of words, color instead of colour for instance. If your original search doesn't turn up a result try changing the spellings.
Wildcard Searching: If you add * at the end of what you are searching for, such as union* it will search for all words that start union like unions, unionise or unionism.