Simple Search
Key Takeaways:
Let the system work for you. Keep things simple in the single search box.
Try different searches.
Make use of the filters to refine search results.
- A search will generally be treated as a phrase with words closer together.
- Surround terms in parenthesis if you want an "exact phrase." Can be especially helpful when searching for a known title. It's subtle, but compare searching green persuasion to searching "green persuasion."
- You can use Boolean operators in a Simple search, but operators need to be capitalized (in Advanced and Simple searches). Will need to nest if you have AND and OR. You can avoid having to explain nesting if you use Advanced search.
Compare and contrast in Find It@USC. Differences if you use quotes around phrases?
global warming conspiracy global warming AND conspiracy
Run these same searches but change the order of the terms to the previous searches.
conspiracy global warming conspiracy AND global warming
- Searching behavior can be complex. Sometimes the system may alert you that other terms were also searched.
death penalty morality compare search behavior to capital punishment morality
- Sometimes a search may find terms within the full text. You can't tell when it can do this and when it doesn't. Might happen with some articles but not others, some ebooks but not others or possibly just some of the ebook.
- Punctuation can matter!
Compare the results in PASCAL Delivers scope for 20000 leagues 20,000 leagues
Initials are always tricky.
Was it entered with just a period, E.L. Inabinett, or with a space after the first period E. L. Inabinett
"e l inabinett" "el inabinett"
Use OR to look for both. If using a Simple search and your search also includes AND, be sure to nest OR terms inside parentheses
("e l inabinett" OR "el inabinett) AND papers
But in other instances it isn't so sensitive. Performance was improved and colons before subtitle don't seem to mess up searches.