Introduction

Quick Search

Complex Search

Call Number Browse

More on keyword searching

• Precise phrase searching
• Substitution and truncation
• Operators
• Operator precedence
• Nesting
• Stopwords

Searching for:

• Authors
• Titles
• Periodical Titles
• Subjects

Advanced searching

• Fields

Printing, e-mailing or downloading search results

Help with Acorn
Complex 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, or NOT or positional operators SAME, WITH, NEAR, or 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 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, or 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).

Match on -- should this limit be removed from the search screen?

Allows specification of how much of a search term must match the retrieval set: setting: retrieves: KEYWORD records containing the entire search term in fields that are indexed if no matches are found, the setting automatically changes to PARTIAL PARTIAL Acorn looks up the search term(s) in the browse index and uses terms that match partially to search the catalog as many of the results as possible are displayed initial articles in titles are skipped in the matching process if no matches are found, the setting automatically changes to KEYWORD EXACT records containing an exact match of the entire search, from beginning to end

Sort by

Setting: orders records: ANY last in first out: records added most recently to the database appear first, regardless of year of publication AU alphabetically by the last name of the first author titles that do not include an author display first in the list SU alphabetically by the first subject heading listed on the record all subject headings are combined in the sort TI alphabetically by title PBYR by publication date, with the earliest published items first -PBYR by publication date, with the most recently published items first

 

Sample complex searches:

select search field:	type in:	select operator:	retrieves Acorn records with:
words anywhere words anywhere	atomic bomb	ADJ	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
more examples