Tind Guide: Search Guide

Keyword Searching

There are three ways of keyword searching. An overview is given in the table below:

Type	Syntax	Can query keywords occur in different metadata fields?	Can words other than query keywords occur within the same metadata field?
Broad Match	No formatting	Yes	Yes
Partial Phrase	"Double quotes"	No	Yes
Exact Phrase	[Brackets]	No	No

Broad Match

A broad match keyword search will return results for all records that contain all keywords in the record's metadata. It also searches across all metadata fields. It will not consider which fields the keywords are located in.

Example Query	Results Across Metadata Fields	Results Within Metadata Fields
Consider searching for `Albert Einstein`	The word `Albert` and the word `Einstein` do not need to occur in the same metadata field. E.g. `Albert` could be in the title field and `Einstein` in the author field.	A metadata field may contain additional metadata. E.g. results will be shown for both author:`Albert Einstein`and author:`Robert Albert Einstein`

Partial Phrase

A partial phrase keyword search is done by using double quotes around your keywords: "Albert Einstein". Using partial phrase will return results for all records that contain these keywords in the same metadata field of a record.

Example Query	Results Across Metadata Fields	Results Within Metadata Fields
Consider searching for `"Albert Einstein"`	The word `Albert` and the word `Einstein` need to occur in this order in the same metadata field.	A metadata field may contain additional metadata. E.g. results will be shown for both author:`Albert Einstein`and author:`Robert Albert Einstein`. The order of the words matter.

Using an asterisk * for truncation in a partial phrase match can lead to unexpected results, because when searching within some fields (e.g. author:"Albert Eins*") the constraint on matching within one and the same field will not always be enforced.

Exact Phrase

An exact phrase keyword search is done by brackets around your query: [Albert Einstein]. Using exact phrase will return results for records that contain only these exact keywords in the same metadata field of a record.

Example Query	Results Across Metadata Fields	Results Within Metadata Fields
Consider searching for `[Albert Einstein]`	The word `Albert` and the word `Einstein` need to occur in the same metadata field (in at least one field).	A metadata field must contain ONLY the words `Albert` and `Einstein` E.g. results will not be shown for author:`Albert J. Einstein`or author:`Theodor Albert Einstein`

Field Search

Index Fields

The system offers the ability to search within specific metadata fields, for example the title, author or abstract field. A list of fields can be found in the advanced search dropdown menu. Field searches are conducted by typing the name of the field following a colon and the desired keyword(s), for example: author:Einstein. If multiple keywords are used within a field search, special syntaxes are required:

Search type	Syntax	Example	Expected Behaviour
Partial Phrase	"double quotes"	`subject:"particle physics"`	Keywords need to be in same metadata field, but will also return results for e.g subject:`high energy particle physics`. The order of the words matter.
Exact Phrase	[brackets]	`subject:[particle physics]`	Will only return results if metadata in specified field exactly matches the query.

Special characters: if a keyword includes special characters, syntax is required (such as parenthesis or quotes, e.g. author:"Saint-John"). The search engine uses the following special characters to designate syntax and thus should be avoided in simple searching: + - = & | > < ! ( ) { } [ ] ^ ~ * ? : \ /

MARC Fields

The system also supports search within MARC fields. To search within a MARC field, simply use the same syntax as described in the above section. Please note:

Field	Syntax
MARC field	To search in the main MARC field, type for example `245:"Einstein Theory of Relativity"`
Subfield	To search in a specific subfield, both indicators must be specified as well. For example: `24510a:"The Einstein Theory of Relativity"`
Wildcards	Any indicator, any subfield: `245:"query"` or `245%%%:"query"` Any indicators: `245%%a:"query"` or `245%1%:"query"` Any subfield: `24510%:"query"`

Wildcards
The first three digits of the MARC field have to be digits, and cannot be replaced by wildcards. Searches such as 2%%:"query" and 24%%%a:"query" are therefore not supported.

Advanced Search

Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms. When searching, you can use Boolean operators to either narrow or broaden your record sets. The three Boolean operators are AND, OR and NOT.

Operator	Explanation
AND	Searches for results that include both the term before and the term after the operator. For example: the query `particle AND physics` returns all records that contain both the word particle and the word physics. The query `author:einstein AND author:feynman` returns all records that contain both authors in the record.
OR	Searches for results that include either the term before or the term after the operator (or both). For example: the query `particle OR physics` returns all records that contain either the word particle or the word physics (or both). The query `author:einstein OR author:feynman` returns all records that have either einstein or feynman listed as author (or both).
NOT	Searches for results that do not include the term after the operator. For example the query `NOT Einstein` returns all records that do not contain the word Einstein. The query `author:einstein NOT author:feynman` returns all records that contain the author einstein but not the author feynman. If a record has both authors, it will be excluded from the results.

Case sensitive: the Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are only recognized if written in uppercase. This behavior is intended to avoid problems when searching for records such as with the title "The Fox and The Crow".

Combining Boolean operators

The search engine combines operator sequentially. Below are two examples to help understand the logic of combining operators.

Example 1: the query Einstein AND Physics OR Universe is equivalent to doing two queries:

Query 1: Einstein AND Physics
Query 2: Universe

If a record has metadata that satisfies one of the above queries, it will show in the results list.

Example 2: the query Physics OR Universe AND Einstein is equivalent to doing two queries:

Query 1: Physics AND Einstein
Query 2: Universe AND Einstein

If a record has metadata that satisfies one of the above queries, it will show in the results list.

Multiple Fields

Building queries within an index: when searching for e.g. multiple subjects or collections, the following syntax must be applied: subject:"Engineering" AND subject:"Physics" . This query retrieves records with at least one subject containing the word engineering and at least one containing the word physics, as well as records with both terms appearing in a single subject. Please note that the following syntax would NOT provide you with results that have both subjects. rather, it would look for records that have a single subject called "Engineering Physics": subject:"Engineering AND Physics".

Truncation

Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the symbol (*) at the end. The system will return results that include any ending of that root word. Examples:

Example query	Will also return results for
child*	child, childs, children, childrens, childhood
genetic*	genetic, genetics, genetically

Where to use truncation: truncation can be used at the end of a term (e.g. child*) or in the middle of a term (e.g. col*r), but will not work when used in the beginning of a term (e.g. *hood). Truncation should not be used in conjunction with partial phrase matching.

Range

Ranges can be specified for date, numeric and string fields. The following syntaxes are supported for range search:

Syntax	Explanation
->	Include range values
>	Greater than
<	Less than
=	Equals exactly

Below are examples for common range searches:

Type	Example	Explanation
Date range	`year:2012->2013`	Search for all dates in 2012 and 2013
Item count	`itemcount:1->5`	All records with minimum 1 item and max 5 items
Item count	`itemcount:>=10`	All records with 10 or more items