Online Search Help
Introduction
Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) is a bibliographic database of books, reports & bound volume of periodicals holdings. This database contains 80,000+ records at present. A database is an organized collection of "records" represents a book, conference proceedings, reports etc. Records are sub-divided into categories of information known as fields e.g. title, author, publisher etc.
OPAC module of Aurum lets you search for terms of your choice throughout the entire database or in a specific fields. It uses its own Search Engine for quick response to the query.
Search terms include Title, Author, Keyword, Series, ISBN, and Report Number. Advance Search implies being able to make search using a combination of Boolean operator AND(*)/OR(+) with the choice to specify the field in which the search is to be carried. The fields namely Title, Author, Keyword, Series, ISBN, and Report Number can be specified or the option Keyword Anywhere may be selected for searching the term anywhere in the record.
A search term may be word or phrase under which you may be looking information in the database. In Boolean Search multiple search terms can be combined with Boolean operators */+. In case you are not sure about the term use Truncation. Term may be right truncated with a question mark (?). In case stop word is used as term the results will be nil.
Search is not case
sensitive i.e. it makes no difference whether one types whole term in upper case, lower
case or a combination of both, but use of certain characters such as apostrophe (`) and braces results in invalidity of the search term.
STop words are the
insignificant word that are avoided at the time of index generation. Don't use any stop
word in your query e.g.
of, in, on, etc.
for example:
god of small things
here of and small are stop words.
you can search using
god * things
A word/phrase may be truncated, in case you are not sure with the spellings of the same e.g.
?outy, N.H. – retrieves all records containing words ending with “outy, N.H. ” in the search field.
Bshouty? – retrieves all records containing author names starting with surname “Bshouty”.
Bshouty? - retrieves all records containing author names starting with “Bshouty”.
?houty? - retrieves all records
containing author name “houty” whose
starting and ending characters are not known.
It is a good practice to truncate complete words also for not missing certain items with punctuation immediately after them and also to retrieve all possible derivatives of the word.
If you want to search for more than one
words which are either all present or any number of them are
present in the search field then you can go for Boolean search. These words may not be
located adjacent to each other or may not be in the same order. The strategy is same as
for searching single word or phrase. Only you have to separate your words or phrases by
“*” or “+”. You may also make use of truncation
in multiple words or phrases e.g.
data
* base * management * system – retrieves books details with
words “data”, “base” , “management” , "system" anywhere in the record or
search field (if specified) in any order and any combination.
database
+ management + system - retrieves books details with any of the words or all the
words "database", "management" and "system" anywhere in the
record or search field (if specified) in any order and any combination.
data
base * system -
retrieves books details with phrase "data base"
and word "system" anywhere in the search field and word "base"
appearing just after the word “data" in the search field but word
"system" appearing anywhere in the search field.
data base
+ system - retrieves
books details with phrase “data base” or
with the word “system” and books details containing any of the
phrase “data base” or the word “system”.
?tabase
* manag? - retrieves
books details with all phrases containing at the
end the phrase "tabase" and all words containing in the beginning the letters
"manag" anywhere in the search field in any order and any combination.
?tabase
+ manag? - retrieves
books details with all phrases containing at the
end the phrase “tabase” or with all words containing in the beginning the
letters “manag” and these details satisfying both the conditions.
chauhan?
* ?v.r. - retrieves books
details with all names containing in the beginning the part "chauhan" and
all names containing at the end the letters "v.r." anywhere in the author field
in any order.
chauhan?
+ ?v.r. - retrieves books details with all names
containing in the beginning the part "chauhan" or with all names containing at
the end the letters "v.r." and these details satisfying both
the conditions.
Boolean AND (*) operator is used by default between different search fields when multiple search fields have been specified. AND operator searches those records where all criteria match for each record while OR (+) operator searches those which satisfy any or all criteria.
Search Options
Two types of
search forms have been designed for the user:
This option is used for searching single word, phrase or Boolean search on Title, Author, Keyword, Series, ISBN, and Report Number fields using AND(*) or OR(+) operator among the terms. The search terms may be truncated.
Search Criteria in Simple Search
The search term can be a single word or a phrase or a Boolean statement from itle, Author, Keyword, Series, ISBN, and Report Number etc. The terms may be separated by either AND(*) or OR(+). Both operators are not allowed simultaneously. In case exact term is not known, truncate first few characters with question mark (?) e.g. defen?
Enter an author’s name in indirect order i.e. Last Name, First Name.
e.g. database management system + Date, ?
database management system * Date, ?
How to Search ?
Click Submit Query or press Enter to get the result of your query. Desired books will be shown in Query Results page along with bibliographic details of books found. Each record has a link to More details in more details you can view other details of that book.
If no records are found then “No Match Found” message will appear. Click Back and modify your search terms.
If you want to empty the search textbox click Clear Form.
To cancel Search and to move to Search Page click Home or click Advanced Search to access Advanced Search page.
If you want help on any feature click Help.
This option is used for searching single word or phrase in specific fields with Boolean AND(*)/OR(+) among the three fields. You can specify type of documents from a drop down list. The fields namely Title, Author, Keyword, Series, ISBN, and Report Number can be specified or the option Term anywhere may be selected for searching the term in all the fields (free-text search). By default Boolean AND(*) is used among the three textboxes and the user can also search using OR(+) option if required. The search terms may be truncated. (See: Boolean Search)
Search Criteria in Advance Search
You can enter words, truncated words or phrases in the textboxes. Enter an author’s name in indirect order i.e. Last_Name, First_Name.
e.g.
database management --------> title
AND
Gorman, Michael M. --------> author
Enter your search term in first textbox.
Select the field by dropping down the combo against it for searching the term in specific
field or keep the default – “Keyword ANY WHERE”.
Before entering second term ensure that the first textbox is not blank. Enter your term in second textbox. Select the search field or keep the default for free-text search.
If
you have entered terms in first and second textboxes enter third term in the next textbox
and select the search field.
How to Search using Multiple Terms?
To search the database follow
the steps given below:
1. Type the term in the Enter Term1 Text Box.
2. Select the appropriate field from the drop down, if required.
3. Click the button to select the Boolean operator to combine it with the next term.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for similarly adding Second Term AND/OR Third Term, as required.
5. Click Submit Query to search.
If any record matches to your criteria will be retrieved you can view their bibliographic details. The details are displayed in the Query Results page.
You can view record number, Title, author, publication and call number of the records in the Query result page. This page has a link to more details for more details about that book.