Standard Searching

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Standard Searching

When you do a 'Standard' or 'Simple' Search, this conducts a search against the Collections configured in the Current Profile you have selected. Usually this is using the Z39.50 protocol to search concurrently in all the databases . A single result set is presented to you as and when records are found.

1.Optionally select your preferred profile from the pull down box.

2.Click the Collections link.

3.In the Searchable Collections listed, check the relevant boxes for including collections in your search.

4.In the Search for box enter your search term(s).

5.When ready click submit.

A Standard Search consists of matching keywords in any indexed field in the record (e.g. title, author or subject entry). To conduct a search, enter keywords, or a whole or part title, and the system will search any field in the databases selected using the Z39.50 'Any' search.

If you are a Bureau administrator you can check the Search Bureau box so that your searches operate across all member locations of the currently active Bureau.

Behavior

•If you enter more than one search term it is automatically 'ANDED'. The Standard Search has AND as the only available Boolean Operator. Boolean Operators can be changed and combined in the Advanced Search.

•Common stop words like 'and', 'the', 'or', etc. are ignored by the search.

•Truncation is applied to any search. For example a search for 'cycle' will also return records containing the word 'cycles'. Truncation attributes are configured OCLC NRE/VDX Support .

•For phrase searching, enclose the whole phrase in double quotation marks e.g.

•"sunspot cycle"

•The search will match against the entire phrase rather than each individual term.

•If you enter terms and part of the string (but not all) contains quotation marks then terms enclosed by quotes are treated as a phrase and ANDED with the other term, e.g.

•"black holes" astronomy

•This is equivalent to black holes and astronomy

•As records are retrieved the initial search Results screen will refresh as more hits are returned.

•For larger results sets 10 records are displayed on each page. The first set of records returned is displayed, even though the remaining records are still being identified. Therefore, results are returned as they arrive, so you do not have to wait for the entire results set to become available.

Filter Options

After VDX has initially returned results you can filter these by Format (e.g. Article Printed), Language or audience Level in order to narrow the search:

1.In the results list click Filter Options at the top of the page.

2.In the Filter options page select the preferred value(s) and click Submit.

3.VDX checks the records and filters out those records whose Format, Language or Audience Level do not match your preferences.

Tips

•If at any time the Total Returned hits do not match the Total Hits figure then clicking on the Get More Hits link at the top of the screen will retrieve more results. Records are displayed in the order that they are returned from the databases.

•1 2 3... You can navigate forward and back through the records using the page numbers and the Next button shown at the top and bottom of the screen. Selecting page 2 displays the records on that page, but also updates the results set to enable subsequent pages of results to be displayed.

•At any time use the results button to return back to the hit-list at the page where you left it.

•When VDX has obtained all the search results and the search is complete it displays the following message at the foot of the screen -

End of Results

Status: Search Complete Total Hits X Total Returned X