Searching in the Online Catalog

start your search | search results | the keep function |  limit your search | switch to power search | truncation | wildcards

Quick Tips – Searching

Choose the type of searching you’d like to do from the Keyword, Browse or Exact options.  Enter in your search term(s), and select the matching category by clicking on one of the following buttons - Everything, Authors, Titles, Subjects, Series, or Journal Titles.  For a more detailed search, try Switch to Power Search, which will allow you to narrow your search term (by item type, language, date of publication, etc.). Don't forget - the Online Catalog now searches for items in Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield Woods Library, and Pequot Library combined.  If you'd like to search an individual library's catalog separately, choose it from the menu under Select Libraries.

Start your Search  

1.  Make sure that you are in the Online Catalog before you begin your search. 

2.  If you are already in the Online Catalog, get to the Welcome page by clicking at the top of the screen.

3.  Use the mouse to choose the type of searching you’d like to do from the Keyword, Browse, Exact options.   

• A Keyword search looks through everything in the item’s record.  This is handy if you don’t remember the exact title or the author’s full name. 
• By using the Browse feature, you are searching for terms beginning with the word you entered.  You’ll then be shown an alphabetical listing that will include your search term, as long as the item is in the catalog.
• Exact will search for items exactly as you type them.  If the item is not in the catalog, you’ll be presented with an alphabetical list of items that fall near your term.

4.   The Online Catalog is designed to search Fairfield Public Library, Fairfield Woods Library, and Pequot Library combined.  If you would like to search a Library individually, you may choose that Library’s catalog by clicking on the arrow next to the word ALL under Select Library, and then scrolling down the list.

5.   Next, use the mouse to click in the search box after the word Search. Enter your search term(s).  At this point, if you just hit the “Enter” key, you will perform a keyword search.

6. Click on the category you want to search, listed right below that line.  You may choose to search within Everything, Authors, Titles, Subjects, Series, or Journal Titles.

Search Results

1. Your search results are given in the form of a list (results list) of all items which match the search. 

2.  Throughout your results list, you’ll see icons which indicate that there some extra features related to items on the list.  Here is a list of the icons and what they mean.

3. Once you see the title you want, click on beside the title to see more information.

4.  When viewing , you will learn the following information about the title:

• how many copies are available
• the estimated wait for the item if it’s checked out
•  how many copies are in the system

5. To see where the book is located, click on 'Click HERE for item locations', which will take you to the bottom of the page where the locations for all the libraries are listed.  You’ll also see  

• the Library who owns the title
• the number of copies owned by the Library
• the current location of the item (remember this is the physical location of the item, so it will change).

6.  If you are searching using a single library’s holding, you can easily switch to see all of the libraries’ holdings by clicking on Change Display and changing the library to All.  

** Remember to use the navigation buttons on the screen to move about in the catalog.  If you don’t, you could lose the search you are performing.  If this happens, click  at the top of the screen.  This will get you back to the beginning.

The   Function

1. If you are searching through a results list with many items, the function may come in handy, especially for printing purposes. If you click on the box next to an item, it will place the item on a special list. This icon also appears in the upper right hand corner of an item's full record.

2.  Before you go on to the next page of results, however, be sure to save your selected items. You can do this by choosing from the toolbar at the top of the page, and by then clicking the button. The function will allow you to save items throughout the same search on a page-by-page basis.

3.  When you have completed your search, go again to your list where you will have the option of viewing or printing your chosen items. You may also email a list of the items to anyone with an email address.

**NOTE:  The feature will only save items from your current search.  Once you go into a new search, any items on the "Kept" list will be removed.

Limiting Your Search

If your search brings back too many items on the results list, click on the Limit Search feature.  This takes you to the bottom of the page where you will see the following choices:

library – limit items owned by a particular library ; scroll down the list to highlight which library you’d like to search.

language – use to select the language in which the title is written.

item type – this is very handy if you are searching for a broad format such as DVD’s, CD-ROM, Audio Book, Compact Disc, etc.

item category1 – use for locating a specific format such as Opera (music genre), Mystery, Large Type, etc.

pub year – you may enter in a range of dates (1998-2001),  a single year (2001),  all years earlier than a given date ( <2000), or all years later than a given date (>2000).

 item category2 – search for just Adult titles, Juvenile or Young Adult

 sort by feature – sort your results alphabetically or by date (only available if results are less than 200 items).

Switch to Power Search

1.  To conduct a more advanced, detailed search, click on the Switch to Power Search button.  The Power Search uses both Boolean Operators and format descriptors to help you define your search.

2.   You’ll need to complete the Power Search form by filling in as many fields as you choose.  The first section of the form allows you to construct a combined search using Boolean operators.   They are as follows :

OR – either one or both terms should appear within the record (jam or jelly)  

AND –both terms must appear within the record (movies and advertising)  

NOT – searches for the first term but not the second.  This is useful when you are looking for information on a single subject that may have more than one meaning, eg. squash NOT sports should bring back information about the vegetable and not the game. 

XOR – will bring back anything with either term but not both terms.  For example, Paul McCartney XOR John Lennon would search for items about Paul McCartney and items about John Lennon, but nothing with John and Paul together.

3.   For instructions on the second part of the Power Search form, please see the instructions for Limiting Your Search.

Truncation

In addition to Boolean searching, the Online Catalog performs truncation searching. Truncation is a great way to broaden your keyword search.  For example, if you are interested in learning about teaching, using “teaching” as your search term will only locate items that contain the word “teaching” in the record. It will not match with records that contain the words “teach,” “teacher,” “teachers,” etc., unless you use the truncation symbol which is $ (dollar sign).  For example :

teach$ (finds teach, teacher, teachers, teaching, etc).

writ$ (finds writer, writers, writing, written, etc.)

Wildcards

While truncation ($) looks for alternate letters at the end of a word, using the “wildcard” symbol asks the catalog to look for alternate letters inside a word.  For example, if you are searching for items on women’s issues, you may want to search for the words woman, women, womyn, etc.  To do this, use the wildcard symbol which is ? (question mark). 

  wom?n (finds : woman, women, womyn).

This is also very helpful when you aren’t sure of the spelling of a word.  Searching for:

Anders?n (finds Anderson or Andersen).