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Phrase and Exact Phrase Searching

A phrase search looks for matches to multiple words, in the same order you typed them. You might choose a phrase search when you know the phrase is part of a specific title.

Your library may offer one or two types of phrase searching. A basic phrase search ignores many common words with three or fewer letters, called stop words. The default English stop words usually include: a, an, and, for, from, in, of, on, the, to, and with. An exact phrase search looks for the exact phrase, from beginning to end, and keeps stop words in the search request.

Examples:
For a phrase search, you select Phrase from the Search submenu. You type gone with the wind in the Search For box, and select Title in the Search By box. The results may include Gone with the Wind, Gone from the Wind, and Gone in the Wind, because the stop words are eliminated from the search. (However, the results do not include titles like The Wind Is Gone).

For an exact phrase search, you select Exact from the Search submenu. You type gone with the wind in the Search For box, and select Title in the Search By box. The results include only Gone with the Wind, not Gone from the Wind or Gone in the Wind, because the exact phrase search retains the stop words.

Objective: Search for a phrase or an exact phrase

Follow these steps to find titles containing a specified phrase in any field or a selected field of the library catalog.

  1. Click Search on the menu bar, and click Phrase or Exact in the Search submenu.

Note:
For examples showing the difference between phrase and exact phrase searching, see "Phrase and Exact Phrase Searching".

  1. If you want to find only a certain kind of material, click the arrow symbol in the Limit by box, and select an option from the list.

Example:
If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD in the Limit by list.

  1. If you want to search a database other than the library, or select multiple databases to search, click Select Databases and choose the databases.

    For more information, see "Selecting Search Databases".

  2. If you want to have the search results sorted by a category other than Most Popular, click the Sort by arrow symbol and select Author, Title, Call Number, or Publication Date.

    The Most Popular option sorts titles in the search results so that the titles most frequently checked out or requested over the past 120 days appear first in the list.

  3. If you want to set limits on your search, or sort the results by two categories, follow these steps:
    1. Click Open Search Options.
    2. Select the settings you want.
    3. Click Set Search Options.

Note:
You can limit a phrase or exact phrase search by library location, publication date, physical material type, language, or target audience. You can also specify two categories for sorting search results. For more information, see "Setting Search Options". If your library offers course reserves, you can limit your search to materials reserved for courses. Click the Course reserve items only check box, or set the equivalent Search Option. For more information, see "Find an item on reserve".

  1. Type the words to search for in the Phrase search for box, keeping these tips in mind:
    • Polaris PowerPAC ignores letter case, multiple spaces, and punctuation. In a phrase search, stop words (such as articles and prepositions) are also ignored. For more information about stop words, see "Stop Words".
    • You can type part of a word and use a wildcard character, such as * (refer to "Wildcard Characters"). For exact phrase searches, you can use * to stand for part of the phrase.

Note:
If you leave this box blank and just select an option in the Limit by box (see step 2), your results will include all the materials that fit your Limit by selection.

  1. Select a field to search in the Search by box:
    • Any Field - All the indexed information fields (phrase only)
    • Author - Author fields (phrase and exact phrase)
    • Subject - Subject fields (phrase and exact phrase)
    • Title - Title fields (phrase and exact phrase)
    • General notes - Notes fields (phrase only)
    • Publisher - Publisher field (phrase only)
    • Series - Series fields (phrase and exact phrase)
    • Genre - Forms or types of materials, such as science fiction, romance, biography, bibliography, or large type books (phrase only)
  2. Click Go.

    When the search is finished, the results are displayed in the center area of the page.

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