Using CatalogPro - Advanced Searching


For a few years now we've been slowly integrating a catalog discovery layer that we've called CatalogPro, this is a keyword search that allows for a narrowing down of results after the search is initiated. It's gotten more powerful over the years and now works much better for those titles that might have traditionally difficult keyword search terms (try searching Twilight or Room for proof!). There will still be times when you don't have specific title or author information or you'll want a more efficient way to search individual terms, thankfully CatalogPro has an Advanced Search option.  You can get to this search via the link below the search box (see the highlighted area in the image below).

advancedsearch

Advanced Searching allows for boolean search which allows you to fine tune your search including "and", "or", and "not" operators.  An Advanced Search for "Plants" OR "Flowers" AND "Iowa" in books will give you 30 items which is much more helpful than a normal keyword search of "Plants flowers Iowa" which shows yields 6 since it's searching for the presence of all three keywords in the record instead of the combination done in Advanced ("Plants & Iowa" and "Flowers & Iowa").

It's easiest to narrow these results prior to the search using the dropdown menus on the Advanced Search page, common searches would include a format type (ex. book vs. ebook), location (ex. adult nonfiction vs. children's nonfiction), and possibly year range (ex. looking for only most up-to-date publications).  I'll share some more CatalogPro tips in future weeks including spell-check, eBook/eAudiobook checkout, and super-secret remote shelf browsing!

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