Quick Searches

Quick searches look only in the library’s own catalog, not in remote databases with the exception of the EDS integration.

Typing Search Text - Quick Searches

Multiple words - If you type more than one word, your results may include materials with the words in any order. If you want to find the words in the exact order, begin the phrase with double quotation marks.

Wildcard characters - 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.

Punctuation - Punctuation is usually ignored. However, you can include the following characters if they immediately precede or follow a letter or number (no space between):
+ # % $

Do a quick search with a Limit by Option

Type a word or words in the Quick Library Search box. See Typing Search Text - Quick Searches.

If you see suggested search terms as you type, you can ignore the suggestions and continue to type your search term, or you can select a suggestion to search for the term. Select Hide Suggestions if you do not want to see search suggestions. Select the small arrow in the search text box to show the suggestions after they have been hidden.

Click or tap the search icon . If the search is successful, you see your search results. If no matches are found, you see a message that no titles were found.

Depending on how your library has set up searching, you may see the following options:
- A Did you mean suggestion that you can select to search for the suggested term.
- A link to results in remote “follow-on” databases that are searched automatically if no results are found in the local catalog.
To limit your search, select the Limit by box, and select an option from the list. Example: If you want to find only DVDs, select DVD in the Limit by list.

Note: Your library may provide a digital collection that you can search and access in the same way that you search for other materials. Materials in the collection may include images, video clips, sound files, and text files. If you want to restrict your search results to digital collection materials, select Digital Collection in the Limit by box.

To see more information about a title in your search results list, click the title or cover image.
To filter your search results or do related searches, select a Narrow or Related option at the side or bottom of the page.

Using search buttons with Quick library search

To use the search buttons (Anywhere, Subject, Title, Author, Series, Fiction, Nonfiction) with Quick library search:

Type a word or words in the Quick library search box. See Typing Search Text - Quick Searches.

Note: If you type search text and press ENTER, without selecting a search button, a keyword search anywhere in the catalog starts. If you choose to select a term from the list of auto-suggestions, the suggested term will be placed in the search box where you can then either click the search icon, or choose one of the search type buttons.

Click or tap a search button to start the search for the text you entered:

Anywhere - Looks in all the indexed information fields.
Subject - Looks in the catalog’s subject descriptions.
Title - Looks in the titles of works in the library catalog.
Author - Looks in authors’ names in the library catalog.
Series - Looks in series names in the library catalog.
Fiction - Looks in fiction titles.
Nonfiction - Looks in nonfiction titles.
My Library + Articles - Searches the Polaris library catalog plus article databases.

If the search is successful, your search results display.

If no matches are found, a message that no titles were found displays.

Depending on how your library has set up searching, you may see the following options:

A Did you mean suggestion that you can select to search for the suggested term.
A link to results in remote “follow-on” databases that are searched automatically if no results are found in the local catalog.

To see more information about a title in your search results list, select the title or cover image. If you see a list of titles, authors, subjects, or series, you can scroll through the list and select a list entry to see the associated titles.
To filter your search results or do related searches, select a Narrow or Related option at the side or bottom of the page.