A simple search from the homepage will search all of the collections in the application, merge the results and rank them according to how relevant they are to your query. To conduct a Simple Search:
The Advanced Search page can be used to refine your search. This is particularly useful if you are searching for something particular and have the title, keyword or perhaps the author of your target. This application's advanced search page has three parts: Search Fields, Categories and Featured Collections.
An advanced search can be customized to target specific fields or collections, increasing your chances of finding exactly what you are looking for.
You can search Full Text, Title, Author, and Date Range.
You may select any or all fields; this allows you to decide how the search operates between fields.
Date Range allows you to search one or more years in the drop-down boxes.
Featured collections are information sources using federated search, or presenting exceptional, authoritative information for researchers.
Your search results will appear in order of relevance, in the middle section of the screen.
You may choose Include these results to add more results to your current list. This will merge in the new results and re-rank them according to relevance, so your results list will change. Clicking Do not include these results will return you to your original search list. This is helpful if you have already spotted exactly what you want, or are looking at results. At any time, you may click "Add results" to include the additional results into your list.
You may select Preferences at the top of the page to modify the display of the Additional Results box or the number of results displayed. The settings only apply to your browser session.
The Collection Status link shows the responsiveness of each separate collection. The green check mark indicates the search at that particular collection completed successfully; the red x indicates that the collection timed out or was slow/unresponsive prior to completing a full search. The number in the Results column signifies the number of relevant results retrieved for your search. The Totals column shows how many results were pulled directly on the collection website. NOTE: Not all collections provide totals.
Using the Collection Status link will help you discover new collections for information, or where additional searching should take place. For more information on this box, how it works and what the numbers mean, please see read our FAQ on Collection Status.
You may sort by Rank, Date, Title, Author, and Collection Order.
You may also filter results by individual collections with the 'Limit to' drop-down box. Using this box allows you to display results from only one collection. You may also sort these results by Rank, Date, Title, Author or Collection Order.
The default display is sorted by Rank with All Collections displayed.
The Topics section is a navigation tool which allows you to "drill down" into the results set for better results. Under the Topics heading, at the left of your results page, results will be grouped into clusters related to your search term. The topics section can help guide you to needed results by grouping your results by topic, collection, author, date, publication and publisher. You can choose to refine results down to three levels in the Topics section displaying results only in the selected category.
Using Topics with the Sort by and Limit to tools allows you to move through pages rapidly to find the results you need.
The navigation bar directly below the banner allows you to view, edit and clear your selected results (My Selections) and print or email the complete results list.
Checking the box next to any result will add it to 'My Selections'. This tool is invaluable as you browse different results pages, perform multiple searches and refine your results sets.
These will be available for viewing on the My Selections page until you close your browser, unless you deselect them by clicking the check box again, or choose Clear Selections.
From the My Selections page, select the Back to Results button to return to your original result list. Also from the My Selections page, you can email, print or download (through the Citations link if available) your selected results.
You may download your results using the Citations link, located on the My Selections page. If you use a bibliographic reader such as EndNote or Refworks, you may download the selected results into your citation manager via an RIS formatted download. Your citation manager should automatically display the results downloaded.
The Print Page option allows you to print directly from your main results or from My Selections.
Searches can include:
As a rule, full text and Boolean searching are supported if the collection database supports it. If full text is returned, you may see a .PDF, .PPT or .TXT icon displayed.
Search is not case sensitive (for example, RAIN, Rain and rain will produce the same results).