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Search features in Ariadne

KEYWORD
A Keyword search searches all of the following fields (called "indexed fields) in Ariadne records: Author, Title, Series, Subject Headings, and Contents Notes (the Notes field lists titles of chapters or sections in compilations or anthologies).

The default keyword search in Ariadne is a phrase search. That means that the words you type into the keyword search box will be searched on as a phrase, with the exception of "and," "or," and "not." These words have special functions when you search. See Boolean Operators below to learn how they work.

BOOLEAN OPERATORS
Use AND, OR, and NOT to combine concepts or terms.

Use AND to combine topics: Example: (annotated bibliography) and children.
The AND operator is used to retrieve records that contain all of the specified words or phrases in indexed fields. For example, the search expression "fractal and geometry" will retrieve all records that contain both the words "fractal" and "geometry" in indexed fields. Note that the two words need not appear in the same field. For example, the word "geometry" might appear in the Subject field of a given record and the word "fractal" might appear in the Title field of that same record. This search expression will retrieve this record, even though the two words do not appear in the same field together.

Use OR to search for words that are similar concepts or synonyms:
Example: Soviet Union or Russia.

The OR operator is used to retrieve records that contain at least one of the specified words or phrases in an indexed field. For example, "phobos or deimos" would retrieve all records that contain either of these words in an indexed field (though not necessarily in the same field together).

Use AND NOT to exclude words: Example: Mexico and not New.

The AND NOT operator is used to modify the results produced by the other Boolean operators (it cannot be used by itself). For example, "mercury and not planet" (or "mercury & ! planet") would retrieve records that contain the word "mercury", but do not contain the word "planet".

When you use Boolean operators, use parentheses to group words together:
Example: (alaska or canada) and (adventure and not vacation).

ADJACENCY
Multiple words are searched together as an exact phrase. Adjacency searching is the default search in Ariadne.
Example: United States supreme court

TRUNCATION
Use the asterisk (*) to truncate the ends of words, allowing you to retrieve plurals and variations of word endings. The asterisk (*) matches up to five non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word.
For example, "inter*" will match "internal" and "internet", but will not match "international".
The '*' wildcard may also be embedded in a search string.
For example, "colo*r" would match both "color" and "colour". Use a single asterisk * to truncate from 1-5 characters.

The '*' wildcard may only appear after at least two characters. For example, "n*" would be rejected, but "ne*" would be accepted (but would likely produce an unmanageably large result set)

Use the asterisk (**) to match any number of non-space characters, starting at the specified position in the word.
For example, "inter**" will match all words that begin with "inter" (e.g., "internal", "internet", "international", etc.). As is the case with the '*' wildcard, the "**" wildcard may only appear after at least two characters (e.g., "p**" would be rejected).

Example: communis* Retrieves records with communism, communist, or communists.
Example: environment* polic*
Example: fyodor dost**

WILDCARD
Use the ? to match any single character in the specified position in the word. The '?' wildcard may only appear after at least two characters.

Example: "anders?n" matches both "anderson" and "andersen".

PROXIMITY
Use NEAR to specify words close to each other, in any order.
Example: California near university

Use "within #" to specify terms which occur within # words of each other in the record.
Example: united states within 3 econom*

FIELDS
Specify fields to search, using field abbreviation.
Fields available for this database are a: (author), t: (title), s: (subject), and n: (note.)

Example: (a:twain) and (t:huck*)
Example: (a:united and a:states) and (s:handicapped or s:disabled)
Example: n:virtual reality

TITLE
Search by title when you know the exact title of an item. Use the title search option to find out if we own a journal (type in the name of the journal, not the title of the article). If you are unsure of the exact title, then search by KEYWORD, and type in distinctive words from the title. (phrase search)

AUTHOR
Search by author to find all the items in our collection written by a particular author. Authors can be artists, musicians, companies, or agencies. (phrase search)

AUTHOR /TITLE
Use this option if you have partial information, such as the author's last name and a few words from the title.
Example: brockman and culture Retrieves The Third Culture by John Brockman.

SUBJECT
Search by subject if you know the official Library of Congress subject heading for your topic. Ariadne retrieves a list of all items cataloged under that subject heading. If you are unsure of the official subject heading, search by KEYWORD on your topic to find the subject headings. (phrase search)

CALL NUMBER
Call Numbers are composed of letters and numbers and indicate the Library of Congress system of subject organization. The letters of the top line indicate the subject. The number on the second line is read as a whole number.
See Outline of the Library of Congress Classification for more explanation.

SERIES
A series is a group of individual items that share a collective title. To locate all items within a series, type in the title of a series in the Series search.

VIDEOS
Use this option to search for a specific video title or a video series.

COURSE RESERVES
Search Reserves to locate closed reserves items put on reserve by instructors. You may search by PROFESSOR name or by COURSE NUMBER.