WebLUIS Advanced Searching
January 2000	GEORGE A. SMATHERS LIBRARIES, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, GAINESVILLE

Use the ADVANCED Search form when:

• You wish to search using any search type not available on the BASIC screen (e.g. call number, ISSN, keyword in a specific field, only Medical Subject Headings...)
• You wish to limit search results by language, format (e.g. video), date of publication, or library location (in the UF Libraries.)
• You wish to enter a moderately complex search combining search terms and/or search types.

Use the COMMAND Search form when:

• You wish to use traditional LUIS search commands (e.g. k=(search term) for a keyword search).
• You wish to construct a very complex keyword search requiring more search entry space.

If you wish to become familiar with traditional LUIS search commands, you may display and print sections from the WebLUIS Users Guide which is available from the WebLUIS. Fortunately, most of the power of the WebLUIS search engine can be utilized without a knowledge of most of these commands.

Using the ADVANCED Search Form

Selecting Advanced Search Types

To search by call number, ISSN...(search types vary by database), select the ADVANCED search mode from the WebLUIS "Toolbar", open one of the "Search in" selection boxes, and select the desired search type. Then enter your search term(s) in the adjacent search entry box and click SUBMIT at the bottom of the screen.

Near the bottom of the ADVANCED search screen you will see one or more options for limiting your search results. The types of limits vary by database. Using these limits enables you to filter out some unwanted materials that would otherwise display as search results. Before clicking SUBMIT, select from any of the limit selection boxes available, or enter a properly formatted date (a link to date limiting instructions is available on the screen).

NOTE: Selections are not available to limit library catalog search results to the format "books" or to publications in the "English" language. These materials represent an overwhelming percentage of items and would not be an efficient or cost-effective filter.

Advanced Keyword Searching Options

The ADVANCED Search form includes three boxes for entry of search terms. When selecting any of the keyword-type searches (Keywords, Title Keywords,...) you may enter one or more search terms in each box using operators that enable you to broaden or narrow your search. Operators may link terms in a wide variety of ways. The more specific the operator used in combining your terms, the fewer matches you will get.

WebLUIS allows three logical operators: AND, OR and NOT. There are also four proximity operators that may be used: ADJ, SAME, NEAR and WITHIN. These allow you to specify relative location of terms within the records retrieved. The default operator is AND. If you enter more than one word in a search entry box, the system supplies the AND operator.

a. Logical Operators (These logical operators are sometimes referred to as Boolean operators.)

AND	both X and Y must be in the same record. Example: hamlet AND shakespeare
OR	either X or Y may be in records retrieved. Example: hamlet OR macbeth
NOT	records containing Z will not be included. Use caution with NOT; don't throw away records you really want

Proximity operators require terms to be in specific positions relative to one another within the same field (e.g., same subject or title field). The operators currently in use are described below. These must be typed into search statements (i.e. they cannot be selected from the form).

Operator	Direction	Distance
SAME	<-->	unlimited number of words
NEAR	<-->	within 1 word (either direction)
OR	-->	within 1 word (to the right)
WITHIN n	<-->	within n words (either direction) where n represents a number

c. Using More Than One Operator

When more than one logical or proximity operator is used, the system sets a priority for combining terms. That is, 'and', 'not', and all the proximity combinations are performed first. 'Or' combinations are performed later. You may assign priority to combinations by using parentheses. Operations within the parentheses are performed first, then combined with operations outside the parentheses.

Truncating Keyword Search Terms

A keyword search term can be shortened by using '?' as a truncation symbol. This allows one search to retrieve singular or plural forms or different spellings of a word or name.

Examples: 
NATION? will match NATION and NATIONS, as well as NATIONALITY. 
JORGEN? will find JORGEN, JORGENSEN and JORGENSON. 

Stopwords

These words are used so frequently that they cannot be searched: a, adj*, all, an, and*, are, as, at, be, been, between, both, but, by, during, for, found, from, has, have, in, near*, no, not, of, on, or*, same*, than, that, the, their, these, this, to, used, was, were, which, with*, within*.

If you use a stopword when constructing your keyword search statement, the system will ignore the stopword and perform the search using the other words in your search statement. Example: THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS becomes THROUGH LOOKING GLASS

Helpful Hints for Keyword Use

1. Rules for entering punctuation:
   • Apostrophes ' should be squeezed out: use lhomme instead of l'homme
   • Hyphenated words should be searched as if two adjacent words: use anti adj drug instead of anti-drug
   • Turn commas , periods . ampersands & and other punctuation into spaces.
   • 'Adj' may be used if appropriate: use m adj m instead of m & m
2. You may use the logical and proximity operators when doing a keyword search from the BASIC Search screen.
3. If you get too few records, broaden your search by deleting a term.
4. If you get too many records, narrow your search by adding a term.
5. Some terms take a long time to search and do not significantly improve the results. For example: UNITED STATES HONG KONG TRADE AGREEMENTS takes a long time because of the words united and states. Doing the search with just hong kong trade agreements will produce similar results.

Other Searches

1. When using the ADVANCED Search form, you may wish to try combining any of the search types shown (i.e. not just the keyword search types). Example: author smith AND title introduction to biology
2. When displaying any WebLUIS record, you will often see an author's name, subject headings (on the LONG VIEW), etc. shown as clickable links. Clicking will automatically search the database for that term.
3. When you select the Last Search command, you may then re-submit that search or may edit it on the search form (by adding another keyword term, correcting a spelling error) before re-submission.
4. When you select the Search History command, you may click on any of your previous searches to display the search and then re-submit or edit it. You may also combine two or more previous searches using the Boolean Operators and, or, not.

Copyright ©  1999 University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries P. O. Box 117001  Gainesville, FL 32611-7001  (352) 392-0342 Acceptable Use, Copyright, and Disclaimer Statement Send comments and/or questions about this site to lib-webmaster@mail.uflib.ufl.edu. Last Updated January 4, 2000