DeVry University Library Services : Simple Search Help

Searching the Catalog -- Simple Search

You can search for records using the catalog's searching options.

Click a search option from the search menu(see the table below for a description of the search options).

Enter the words you want to search for in the search box.

Select the type of search that you want to perform by choosing a search type from the Find Results in: list.

Limit to a single location by selecting a location from the Limit By Location : menu.

Select the Limit button in the lower right to limit your search by material format or by date.

Specify how many entries of the search results you want to have display on each page by clicking the drop-down arrow and selecting the number of records.

Click the Submit button to execute the search.

You can also click the Reset button to clear the information entered into the page

Search Type	Brief Help	Special Instructions
Keyword	Enter words and/or phrases. Keyword searches every field in the record. Use quotes to search phrases: "world wide web." Use + to mark essential terms: Example: unix+ will only return records that have the word unix. use ? to truncate: Example: cat? will find cat, cats, catalog, catalyst, etc	Keyword searching uses Relevance, which means that the catalog shows you records which best match your search first. It then shows you records which may match your search, but not as closely
Title Keyword	Enter words in the title.	If you enter more than one word, the catalog will find only those titles that contain all of the words you entered.
Title	Enter all or part of the title. Truncation on the right is implied. This means that if you enter internet, the catalog will show you all the titles that begin with internet. Leave off leading articles (a,an, & the).
Author Browse	Browse through authors' names. Enter the author's name, last name first, omitting all punctuation. Truncation on the right is implied, which means if you enter Smith, the catalog will show you all of the Smiths.	Search limits are not available with browse searching
Subject Browse	Browse through subject headings. Enter the subject or topic, omitting all punctuation. Truncation on the right is implied. This means that if you enter unix, the catalog will show you all the subject headings that begin with unix.	Search limits are not available with browse searching
Call Number Browse	Browse through call numbers. Enter spacing and punctuation accurately: QA76.76 M23 Truncation on the right is implied. This means that if you enter the QA76, the catalog will show you all the call numbers that begin with QA76. Capitalization is not important, but punctuation is.	Search limits are not available with browse searching
Command Search	use AND, OR, & NOT to combine search terms. use opening and closing parentheses to group search terms. use ? to truncate: Example: cat? will find cat, cats, catalog, catalyst, etc.