Boolean Searches

With a Boolean search, you can do complex, precise searches by typing CQL (Common Query Language) search commands. The search command can include the following parts:

• The text for which you are searching
• The access points (fields) you want to search; for example, author or title (see Search Access Point (Field) Codes)
• Operators (connectors) that link one part of the search with another (see Operators)

Example: To find the works of author Asimov published in or after 1970, you type the following command:
AU=asimov AND PD >= 1970
AU specifies the access point Author. The search text for this access point is asimov.
AND is the Boolean operator connecting the two conditions of this search (the author and the date).
PD specifies the access point Publication Date. The search text for this access point is 1970.
The symbol >= is the relative operator greater than or equal to.

If your library offers other databases to search, they are available to select for a Boolean search.

Fields that can be searched with CQL search commands fall into one of three categories:

• Keyword-indexed fields (for example, author, title, subject, notes) - A record must contain all the keywords entered in the field selected for search, in any order. Other words may be present, or the words may be present in different fields of the same type. To retrieve only records that contain the search words in a specific order with no words in between (that is, to do a phrase search), enter the words in double quotation marks. For example, a search for TI=french cooking finds the title French Provincial Cooking while TI=“french cooking” does not.
• Fields that are searched with string searches - A record must contain an exact match on the search characters (for example, a call number or publisher number search). If the field typically includes spacing or punctuation, and you want to find an exact match on the entire string, enter the text within double quotation marks. For example, when searching for a call number: CALL="641.5944 Dia"
• Fields that require library-specific or Polaris-specific codes - For example, language, target audience, type of material.

Operators

Operators link one part of a search command to another, and direct how the parts are related.

Boolean Operators

The Boolean operators And, Or, and Not combine search terms:

• And - A record must match both the term before and the term after the operator to be included in the search results.

Example:
AU=“isaac asimov” AND TI=planets
Finds only the items written by Isaac Asimov that have the word planets in the title.

• Or - A record can match either the term before or the term after the operator, or both, to be included in the search results.

Example:
AU=“isaac asimov” OR TI=planets
Finds all items written by Isaac Asimov and all items with the word planets in the title by any author, including Asimov.
If you have a number of terms to combine with OR, type the command this way:
AU={list}asimov, dick, ballard, lem, capek{/list}
You can insert as many terms as you need between {list} and {/list}

• Not - A record must match the term before the operator, but not the term after the operator, to be included in the search results.

Example:
AU=“isaac asimov” NOT TI=planets
Finds only those items written by Isaac Asimov that do not have the word planets in the title.

If you use multiple operators in the same search command, use parentheses to group (nest) the operations to be performed.

Example:
(AU=rowling AND TI=potter) NOT (AU=rowling AND TI=phoenix)
Finds items by Rowling with the word Potter in the title, but not titles by Rowling with the word Phoenix in the title.

If you use multiple operators in the same search command but do not group the operations, the operators are processed according to the following precedence (lower values have higher precedence):

• PROX = 1 (see Proximity Operator)
• AND = 2
• OR = 3
• NOT = 4

Relative Operators

Relative operators are symbols that compare search terms:

Example:
PD >= 1987
This example finds items published in or after 1987. PD specifies the publication date access point. See Search Access Point (Field) Codes for access point codes.

Example:
KW=solar system AND PD < 1932
This example finds items published before 1932 that have the words “solar system” in any record field. KW specifies the keyword access point. See Search Access Point (Field) Codes for access point codes.

Proximity Operator

With proximity searching, you specify the allowable distance between two terms, which can be keywords or phrases. The proximity-distance operator is PROX/distance. The proximity-distance is the difference between the positions of the left and right terms. The distance is never negative, and adjacent terms have a proximity-distance equal to 1. You can use the operator with the relative operators < (less than), <= (less than or equal to), = (equals), >= (greater than or equal to), > (greater than), or <> (not equal to).

You can use the following modifiers:

/ordered - The order of the two terms in the search results must be the same as the order of the terms in the query.

/unordered - The order of the two terms does not matter in the search results.

You can use keyword or phrase search access points (such as KW, AU, TI) but the access point must be the same for both terms. If no access point is specified, KW (keyword) is assumed. See Search Access Point (Field) Codes.

Example:
“cat” PROX/distance<=5 “the hat”
Find the keyword cat where it appears less than or equal to 5 words before or after the phrase the hat. That is, between 0 and 4 words exist between the keyword cat and the phrase the hat.

Example:
“Harry Potter” PROX/distance<10/ordered “J. K. Rowling”
Find the phrase Harry Potter where it appears less than 10 words before the phrase J. K. Rowling. That is, between 0 and 8 words must exist between the phrase Harry Potter and the phrase J. K. Rowling, counting from the first word in each phrase.

Example:
“United States” PROX/distance=2 “Union”
Find the phrase United States where it appears exactly 2 words before or after the keyword Union. That is, exactly 1 word must exist between the phrase United States and the keyword Union.

Restrictions on the proximity operator:

• The proximity operator does not support nested Boolean expressions in either the left or right terms. For example,
  ((Dog OR Cat) PROX/distance=5 Food) PROX/distance=6 Kennel is not supported.
• The maximum proximity-distance is 1024. If the proximity-distance in the query is greater than 1024, the search process changes it to 1024.
• The total maximum number of keywords in a proximity expression is 16. That is, the number of keywords on the left side of the proximity operator plus the number of keywords on the right side of the proximity operator is limited to 16. If a proximity expression contains more than 16 words, then the proximity operator will be ignored but up to the first 16 words on the left and the right will be checked for adjacency.
• The keyword or phrase access point (such as KW, AU, TI) used in the left and right terms must be the same. For example, the query SU=HARRY PROX/distance<=5 AU=POTTER is not supported and will produce an Unsupported search error.
• The left and right terms for each proximity operator must be a keyword or phrase and not a Boolean expression, but there is no limit to the number of proximity operators in a query. For example, this query is valid:
  (AU=“J. K.” PROX/distance<10 AU=“Rowling”)
  AND (TI=“Conversations With” PROX/distance<10 TI=“Rowling”)
  AND MAT=BKS

Search Text That Includes Operators, Reserved Words, or Special Characters

To search for text that includes an operator or other reserved word, or special characters, as part of the search text, put the text in double quotation marks.

For example, to find the title Bud, Not Buddy, type this command:
TI = “bud not buddy”
Put this text in quotation marks because not is ordinarily a Boolean operator.

As another example, to find the title Tim O'Toole and the Wee Folk, type this command:
TI=“tim o’toole”
Put this text in quotation marks because the apostrophe in the word o’toole is a special character.

The following text must be placed in double quotation marks when used as part of the search text:

• ADJ
• ALL
• AND
• ANY
• NOT
• PROX
• OR
• SORTBY

Search Access Point (Field) Codes

Use these access point codes to specify what fields to search:

LA (Language) Codes

These are some common codes to use with the language access point (LA) in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the code, not the language name. For example, to specify English, type LA=ENG.

Tip: You can see a complete list of language codes at the Library of Congress website: http://www.loc.gov/marc/languages

TA (Target Audience) Codes

Use these codes with the target audience (TA) access point in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the code, not the target audience name. For example, to specify a preschool audience, type TA=a.

Note: Not all bibliographic records include target audience information.

TOM (Format/Type of Material) Codes

Use these codes with the Type of Material access point (TOM) in a Boolean (CQL) search. Use the format/type of material code, not the name. For example, to specify DVDs, type TOM=DVD.

Do a Boolean search by typing a CQL command

To search by typing a Common Query Language (CQL) command

Note: For more information about CQL commands, see Operators, Search Text That Includes Operators, Reserved Words, or Special Characters, and Search Access Point (Field) Codes.

1. Select Boolean from the Search menu.
2. Type the CQL command in the Boolean search for box, keeping the following tips in mind:
• Letter case is ignored.
• You can type a part of a word and use a wildcard character. The wildcard character asterisk (*) represents the rest of the word. For example, if you type King*, the results include words such as King, Kingsley, and Kingford. The wildcard character question mark (?) represents exactly one character. For example, wom?n finds woman and women. If the question mark occurs at the end of a word, it does not act as a wildcard character, so you can find titles like what color is your parachute? Also, if you type a backslash character (\) before any wildcard character, the wildcard character is treated as text.
• Use parentheses to group search terms.

Example:
The following command finds works of the author Asimov which have titles with the word foundation, except audio books published after 1990:
(AU=asimov AND TI=foundation) NOT (TOM=abk and PD>1990)
Terms inside the parentheses are processed first, then the entire command.

• To include text that is ordinarily ignored, such as punctuation or Boolean command words in the search text, place the search text in quotation marks.

Example:
To find the title Bud, Not Buddy, type the following command:
TI = “bud not buddy”

3. If you want to set additional limits, follow these steps:

Important: If you type your search term and then select more search options before selecting the search icon , you will need to re-type your search term.

1. Select More Search Options. The search options window opens.
2. Select the settings you want. On a desktop computer, to select several consecutive items in a list, hold down the SHIFT key as you select the items. To select several items that are not listed together, hold down the CTRL key as you select the items. On a tablet or smart phone, you can select multiple items but the method depends on your device. You can also exclude items from a search. Select them from the appropriate list, and select the Exclude box below the list.

Note: Detailed material types are defined by the library for the physical items the library owns. The formats in the Limit by box on the search bar refer to general formats and types of materials associated with title entries in the catalog. You can limit a search by format or detailed material type, but not both. If you selected a format in the Limit by box when you set up your search, your format choice is canceled when you set a material type.

4. Select Set Search Options. The search options window closes and the search bar displays a highlighted message that options have been set. To change them, select the Change link in the highlighted Options set message, set new values and select Set Search Options. Then do a new search. (The previous search, if any, is automatically done again using your new options settings.)

To reset the search options to their original values, select the Clear link in the highlighted Options set message. The search is done again, using the original values.

Important: Search options retain their settings until you reset them or go to the home page.

1. Select Select Databases. The Select Databases window opens with the library's default search databases (the local database and remote databases) selected. If you do not want to search the local catalog along with the remote databases, select the checkbox next to the local database to clear the checkbox.
2. Select the remote databases. If your library has organized the databases into categories, you can select a category, and the remote databases under that category are selected.
3. Select Set Databases to save your selections. The window closes. (The previous search, if any, is automatically done again using your new database settings.) Your selections remain until you reset them. To reset the search databases to the library's default databases, select Clear.

Select the search icon . If the search is successful, you see your search results. If no matches are found, you see a message.

If you selected remote databases to search, a status bar indicates how many results were retrieved and how many results are pending. To load the remainder of the results, select Add Pending Results. You can select Search Status to see the number of results for all the selected databases. If you have selected or entered a search Limit by option that a remote database cannot use, results from this database are returned based on the basic search terms you entered, and a message indicates that the limiters were not used in the remote database search.