Power Search Guide

Power Search Guide
OCC Libraries Catalog

Search Guide: Introduction | Basic Search | Advanced Search | Power Search | Multi-Libraries Search

Please note that OCC Libraries' four search screens are customized. The help screens, of which this is one, are also customized. Therefore, for search screen help, you should look to these customized help screens. For help with other screens--search results, your account, etc.--please select the Help button on the upper right of the particular screen.

Use your browser's back button to return to the search screen to preserve any search you have already done.

The POWER SEARCH screen features dropdown windows, each with seven types of keyword search that can be combined in various ways using operators. Additionally, you may choose one or more sorting and limiting options.

**This table explains the first set of choices to be made.**
KEYWORD SEARCH TYPES	EXACT PHRASE BOX	OPERATORS AND, OR, NOT
Seven types are available in four dropdown menus. (See ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science for a definition of "series.") Four search terms may be combined in one search using operators. All fields may be searched (KEYWORD anywhere), or certain fields (e.g., author, title, etc.) may be specified.	These dropdown menus allow you to specify that your terms are to be searched as: an exact phrase in exact order next to each other but in no particular order within five words of each other within ten words of each other anywhere--i.e., in no particular order or proximity to each other	These operators specify the relations between the search terms. AND specifies that all search terms must appear; OR specifies one or the other must appear; NOT specifies search term must not appear.

This table explains optional choices that are further down the search screen.
Defaults will apply unless other choices are made.
LIMIT BY LOCATION	LIMIT BY FORMAT	LIMIT BY LANGUAGE	SORT BY DATE, AUTHOR, OR TITLE
Default is all campuses. You may select a single campus or the Internet from the drop-down list.	Default is all formats, but search may be limited to one of thirteen types: audio CDs, audio tapes, browsing books (bestsellers), children's literature, all books, CD-ROMs, DVDs alone, DVDs and videotapes combined, electronic books, government documents, journals and newspapers, reference books, and videotapes alone.	Default is all languages. You may confine the search to a single language: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish.	"Sort" means the order in which results are displayed. Default is by date, newest items first. You may change the sort to alphabetical by author or title.

More about Power Search

Keyword searches work as described on the Basic Search Guide. However, the Power Search screen allows you to combine several different keyword types into one search and then further qualify the search, if desired, with limiters such as format (e.g. videos) and campus.

Example of combining search types:

You may know one word from a book title and also an author's last name. For example, you know the book title contains "gone" and the author's last name is "Mitchell."

Select TITLE keyword from one dropdown box and type gone.
Select AUTHOR keyword from the second dropdown box and type mitchell.
Click on "GO" and you get Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.

Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT represent the different ways of combining search types. AND is the default, but you may change the operator using a dropdown box.

AND combines search terms so that all terms must appear in each record in the search results. For example, michigan AND employment produces records relating to employment and Michigan. It is the default way of combining search terms.
OR combines search terms so that either one or both terms may appear in each record in the search results. For example, dogs OR cats produces records relating to dogs alone, or cats alone, or both cats and dogs.
NOT combines search terms so that a particular term is excluded from the search. For example college* NOT universit* produces records relating to college/colleges but not university/universities (keeping in mind that the asterisk is a wildcard representing an unlimited number of characters).

You may combine up to four search boxes using either the AND or the OR operator. For example:

War AND france AND germany AND united states works. This search specifies that results must contain all four elements.
War OR france OR germany OR united states works. This search specifies that results must contain at least one of the four elements.

Note: Using three or four search boxes while mixing operator types AND, OR, and NOT may produce inaccurate results. For example, france OR germany AND united states NOT war does not work. Pets NOT cats does work. Please see a librarian for assistance with these complex searches.

Limiting and Sorting:

Power Search lets you limit the search in various ways and change the order ("sort") of the results. For instance, you may confine the search to a particular format (e.g. videos) and/or to a particular campus library, and have the results sorted by date, author, or title. (The default sort is by date of publication.) An example would be a AUTHOR keyword search for Shakespeare limited by format to videos and by campus to Orchard Ridge, and sorted alphabetically by title.

The library catalog returns a list of results based on the search criteria you enter. For more information on how to understand your search results, see interpreting your search results.

Search Guide: Introduction | Basic Search | Advanced Search | Power Search | Multi-Libraries Search

This page was last reviewed on 01/29/07. Comments about this page are welcome.