Searching by fields
The Advanced search enables you to find books, reports, journal articles and websites by searching within specified fields. You can put in a single word or a combination of words. If you make a mistake, click Clear (at the bottom of the screen) or select the term and press backspace or delete on your keyboard, or overtype the search. Alternatively to begin a new search, click New Search on the menu.
- All Fields search: Enter your search terms. This can be either a single word or a combination of words. The All Field Search enables you to search a range of fields at the same time eg author, title, journal name, keyword or phrase.
- Title and ISBN fields: Enter your search terms into the field. The title field presents a drop-down list of matching entries, from which you can select the required entry.
- Author, Corporate author and Keyword fields: After you enter the first three characters of a search term, you’ll see a list of possible matches from which you can select the correct term. Highlight the term you require, and it will automatically populate the box. You can also select terms from a list. Click Lookup to open the list and a tree of the terms by letter of the alphabet will display. Click the arrow by the letter to open the extended tree of search terms and choose the term you want to search by checking the box next to it. It will show in the search box on the right-hand side. Repeat this for as many terms as you want to search. The system will automatically apply the AND operator between terms. You can change the setting by selecting either the OR or NOT operator. Finally, click Apply and you will see the advanced search, with your selected terms pasted into the relevant fields.
- Adding terms: To add more terms to a search field, click Repeat. You'll see another search box appear and you can enter terms into the box. You can continue to add boxes as required. You can also change the AND/OR/NOT drop-down as required.
- Publication date: You can search for a specific publication date by selecting a Time span and a Date type. Most often, the year will be the useful time span to search, along with a date type of exact date. Adding a month to the exact date option may be useful when looking for an article, a podcast, or a webinar. However, the day, month and year options are crucial when you are unsure of the precise date of a publication and need to search by Dates range.
- Searching within fields: You can specify how your search terms will be used by the search engine to retrieve records. The options are:
- All of these words - The search engine will look for records containing all of the words you have entered in the field irrespective of the order you have entered them in.
- Exact wording or phrase - The search engine will look for records with all of the search terms you have entered in the filed in the exact order you have entered them in.
- Using AND, OR, NOT operators: You can build a search by combining within fields and adding AND/OR/NOT.
- Content and record types: The Filter by content box on the right-hand side of the screen will enable you to narrow your search to a particular type of content, such as books, reports, journal articles or web articles. Click on the plus signs to open up the record types and uncheck the boxes to leave out content and record types of no interest from your search. You can then limit your search to reports published after 2021, for example, or web articles.
- Additional fields: You can search for publications by choosing an additional field from the dropdown options. The most useful options here might be publisher (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, for example) and series, to specify guides, research reports, survey reports, evidence reviews or a series such as the ‘Valuing your talent’ publications. Searching in these fields is similar to searching for an author, corporate author or keyword, with a Lookup function available.
Viewing results and printing
- Once you have entered your search terms, either click Search or press Enter on your keyboard. Results are displayed in the search results screen. Click individual records to see full details in the Summary screen. You'll automatically be shown the Summary screen if only one record was found. If no results are found, you'll see a "No records found" message.
- You can browse the search results in the search results screen and select items by checking the boxes on the left hand side of the list. You can then view full details of your selected items.
- If you wish to download, print, or email your results, click on the button labelled ‘Selected record action’, choose your option and follow the instructions. It is best to use the ‘search results’ or ‘printout’ report.
- If you wish to download, print, or email the results of multiple searches, use the Basket option among the selected record actions and then follow the appropriate instructions.
- Avoid using the ‘back’ button on your browser – all the options you need should be available on screen.
