Introduction

Basic Search

Advanced Search Options

• Keyword search
  
• Call number search
• Browse search
• Search only electronic books
• Search only videos

Search Results

• Category analysis (coming soon)
• Copy status
• Cross reference
• Full details
• Printing, e-mailing or viewing
• View options

Navigation

• My account
• Acorn alerts
• Login/Logout

Search Tips

• Searching for Authors
• Searching for Titles
• Searching for Periodical Titles
• Searching for Subjects
• Precise phrase searching
• Substitution and truncation
• Operators
• Operator precedence
• Nesting
• Stopwords
• Standard entry tags
• Searching numbers in a list
• Special characters

Glossary

Help with Acorn

Advanced Search Options: Keyword Search

• To search for a term or phrase in any field, type it in the box labeled words anywhere.
  
  
• To search for a term or phrase in a specific field such as Author, Title or Series, use the pull-down menus on the left to change field labels.
  
  
• Combine keywords in a single search box by using the Boolean operators and, or, not or positional operators same, with, near, adj.
  
  
• The operator used if none is specified between words typed in a single search box is same -- terms must appear in the same field in the record.
  
  
• Between fields, use the connectors from the pull-down menus on the right.
  
  
• Set other search limits if desired:

Library

Limit results to the holdings of an individual library by selecting one library from the pull-down menu. The default ALL retrieves records for items located in any of the Vanderbilt libraries, items that are on order or in process, and those that are in one of the VU Centers, such as the Margaret Cuninggim Women's Center Library. Internet includes both paid electronic subscriptions and freely accessible Internet resources that have been selected for inclusion by Vanderbilt librarians.

Pubyear

Limit results to items published on, before, or after a particular year, or within a range of years. to find publication dates: type in: equal to a year =2001 in range of years 1990-1996 less than a year <1800 greater than a year >1990 greater than or equal to a year >=1905 less than or equal to a year <=1954   Note: This search does not use the publication date in the Publication Info area of the Acorn record. Instead, it searches the Publication Year field, a separate field maintained by Acorn, and not visible in the display of the record. Occasionally, search results will appear not to match the criteria entered.

Language

Default ANY retrieves all matches regardless of language. Choosing a specific language limits search results to items that are in, include material in, or that are translations of material that was originally published in that language. This limit looks for a language designation in a special field of the Acorn record. Not all Acorn records contain this designation, so some items in a particular language may be excluded.

Itemtype

Retrieves records with at least one copy in that item type category. Successful use requires specialized knowledge of how Acorn records are coded. If in doubt, retain the default setting (ANY).

Sort by

Select: Author, title, subject sort records alphabetically by the field selected. Relevance ??? Old to new or New to old

 

Sample advanced keyword searches:

select search field:	type in:	select operator:	retrieves Acorn records with:
words anywhere	atomic adj bomb		both words side by side in the order entered, anywhere in the indexed fields of the Acorn record
words anywhere words anywhere	debakey surgery	and	both search words somewhere in the indexed fields of the Acorn record
author subject	sagan astronomy	and	sagan in the author field and astronomy in a subject field
author title	thoreau walden	not	thoreau in the author field, as long as walden does not appear in the title field