Module 2 ENG
Estimated time: 1 h 30 min
Welcome in Module 2!
When you search for an item in your database, you are actually searching through an index of information. For example, you search through an author index to find authors; you search through a subject index to find items on specific subjects. Your system administrator determines how many indexes you have at your library and how they are labelled.
There are many ways to categorize and search for bibliographic information. This chapter provides you with an overview of conducting searches on the Horizon system. Searching involves three tasks:
• Choosing a search
• Entering a search term
• Finding an item you want
One of a library’s most common needs is to find information quickly. Horizon Searching fills this need by performing searches acrosss the Horizon modules. For example, you can locate a record to edit in Cataloging, an item to check out in Circulation, or a title that you want to order in Acquisitions. To sucessfully conduct searches using Horizon, you must be familiar with the windows and lists that Horizon uses to display information.
The first step in finding the item you need is choosing a search. You choose a different kind of search depending on the information you know when you start. The most common searches are:
• Typical Keyword. Searches for items by information such as title, contents, subject, author, and series.
• Boolean Keyword. Uses special search symbols to expand or narrow searches to fit your needs.
• Alphabetical Authority/Browse. Searches for records alphabetically by title, author, subject, or series.
• Exact match. Searches for specific records by supplying unique information such as ISBN, ISSN, volume, and call number.
This short movie will present you, what you can find on Library site:
GENERAL SEARCH GUIDELINES
When you enter a search term, such as a title or a keyword subject, remember these guidelines:
• Capitalization.
You can enter search requests in either uppercase or lowercase characters. The system makes no distinction between the two.
• Hyphenation.
Horizon searches hyphenated words as separate words. Therefore, you can enter hypenated terms (such as “cease-fire” or “trade-in”) with or without a hyphen. The system makes no distinction between terms such as “trade-in” and “trade in.” If you do not type the hypen, however, be sure to enter the term as two words (“trade in”, not “tradein”).
• Punctuation.
The system ignores puctuation marks, including apostrophes, comas, periods, accent marks, multiple spaces, and so forth. The inclusion or exclusion of punctuation does not affect the search. However, certain punctuation marks (such as parentheses and caret symbols), can be used as Boolean operators to limit or expand searches.
Keyword searching finds items that have a specific word or words in the title, contents, subject, or series. You typically use a keyword search to find general topics when you don’t have any specific bibliographic information
This is the simplest form of keyword search. You enter a single keyword.
Search the library catalog. Fill in at least one field. The more words you search for, the smaller and more refined your results list will be. This search lets you locate records, such as titles, authors, or subjects, that contain two or more terms. Multiple-term searches can consist of several keywords as well as use Boolean operators. :
Search the library catalog. Fill in at least one field. The more words you search for, the smaller and more refined your results list will be. To search NEW TITLES, type an * in the search box, select a predefined limit and press GO.:
Summary:
- you can search in three ways,
- with the library catalog you can do many tasks at home, saving you time,
- foreign words (eg in Russian) are transliterated
