Search Tips

At times a search may yield unexpected results, too many results, or no results at all. This section offers some tips on Polaris PowerPAC searching that may improve your search results.

Keyword Search or Browse Search?

Keyword searches display titles in which text in a bibliographic record field matches the text in the Keyword search for box. Browse searches display the specified index, beginning with entries that start with text similar to the text in the Browse search for box.

• A keyword title search for trains displays a list of items that have the word "trains" anywhere in the title.
• A browse title search for trains displays the portion of the title index containing the first title that starts with the word "trains".

Search Results Limits

A keyword search results list is limited to 1,000 titles. If your search yields 1,500 titles, only the first 1,000 that match the search terms are listed in the search results. The limit prevents huge search result lists, which occupy the system for long periods and are not very useful because they are so wide.

Note:
You can focus your keyword search to yield fewer but more useful titles. See "Focusing Searches" for more information. If you specify a Web search engine as a search database, the results set is limited to 100 entries. (For the Web search engine LookSmart®, results are limited to 6 entries.) For more information about selecting search databases, see "Selecting Search Databases".

A browse search is limited only by the number of entries in the specific index you are browsing. A browse subject search, for example, displays the section of the subject index that begins with the word you typed, but you can view previous or later portions of the index. You could click the <<Previous 10 headings - Next 10 Headings>> links to view the entire index from A to Z, although it would be an inefficient way to find an item.

Search Targets

You can do keyword searches in databases beyond the library (see "Selecting Search Databases"). Browse searches look only at the library system indexes.

Searching for Formats

You can limit keyword search results to a particular format, such as DVD or Large Print. You cannot limit browse search results in this way.

Cross-References

Browse author and browse subject searches may list cross-references to related names or subjects. Keyword searches do not offer cross-references, although you can launch related searches from the keyword search results.

Wildcard Characters

For all search types except browse, you can type a partial word and a wildcard character to find materials that include the partial word you entered. The wildcard characters asterisk (*) or question mark (?) represent the rest of the word. For example, if you type King* for a keyword author search, the results include materials by authors such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The pound sign (#) represents exactly one character. For example, wom#n finds woman and women.

Stop Words

Many common words with three or fewer letters are stop words, which are ignored when indexing, searching, and sorting. Typically, words used as articles and prepositions are in the stop word list. The default English stop words are a, an, and, for, from, in, of, on, the, to, and with. Your library may have additional stop words.

Single characters (such as I and a) and common two- and three-character words are typically included in the stop word list to maximize searching performance. (Single character searches, in addition to I or a, are ignored by default because they are not words.) Omit stop words from the search text, except in exact phrase searches. These searches keep the stop words in the phrase and include them in the search.

Too Many Titles

Some keyword searches may yield so many results that it is difficult to find what you really want. You may want to focus your search by setting limits on such factors as the libraries or databases searched, publication date, language, and other options. See "Focusing Searches" for more information about ways you can limit and focus your search results.

No Titles Found

Some searches may yield no results at all. Try these strategies:

• Check your search text:
  • Click Spelling Help on the search bar for spelling help and suggestions. See "Using the Spell Checker".
  • Click Dictionary on the search submenu to access the dictionary. See "Using the Online Dictionary".
  • Click Thesaurus on the search submenu to find related words (synonyms). See "Using the Online Thesaurus".
• Try a different kind of search:
  • Do a browse search by title, typing just the first few letters of the title. See "Browse Searching".
  • Do a browse search by author, typing just the first few letters of the author's last name. See "Browse Searching".
  • Do a browse search by subject. Cross-references may help you find related subjects. See "Browse Searching".
  • If you browse-searched the term, try a keyword search in any field for the same term. See "Keyword Searching".
• Search other sources. Click Select Databases and choose search targets beyond the library. See "Selecting Search Databases".
• Run your search later. Click Save Search to run your search automatically at specified intervals. Automatic searches check for items that are new since the last time the search was run. See "Saving Searches".
• Get help from a librarian. Your library may offer these features:
  • Click Ask Us on the toolbar to send an e-mail message to the library. See "Send a question to the library".
  • Click the Live Reference Librarian link to talk with a reference librarian online. See "Submit a live online reference question".