Using Limit To for Narrowing Results
OneSearch filters or limiters can be used to further narrow search results. You can limit results by:
FORMAT/ONLINE
- If you want only online resources, choose "Available Online"
- If you only want physical materials in the library, choose "Available in the Library"
RESOURCE TYPE
- If you want articles, choose "Articles"
Note: Articles include any library item published in a journal or serialized publication like scholarly and peer-reviewed articles, newspaper articles, commentary, opinions, magazine articles, and reviews
- If you want books, choose "Books"
Note: Further narrow results to online books only by adding the filter "Available Online." Using "Books" only will give results for physical library books and eBooks.
- Additional options to narrow by resource type: Newspaper articles, Videos, Datasets, Reviews, etc.
- Hover over the facet to see the exclude icon
DATE
To narrow by date, select a year under From and To fields, then choose Refine to search again.
ADD / REMOVE FILTERS
Narrow results by including or excluding these facets. (Hover over the facet to see the exclude icon). Select a red check box to add or remove a filter.
Focusing Results Using Advanced Searching
Like many search tools, OneSearch also uses Boolean logic searching to narrow results. Boolean logic searching relies on operators to "talk" to OneSearch and relay what you want to specifically find. Common Boolean operators for every search tools include AND, OR, and NOT. They must be CAPITALIZED to work. Additionally, wildcard searching or *, and phrase searching help narrow millions of results to only a few hundred.
Here's how they work:
|
Operator |
Example Search |
The Search Will Find… |
Visual Results |
|
AND |
prison reform AND mental health |
Articles containing “prison reform” and “mental health”. Both terms must be present. Using AND will give you fewer results. |
|
|
OR |
punishment OR sentencing |
Articles containing “punishment” or “sentencing” or both terms. Using OR helps you find more results. |
|
|
NOT |
race discrimination NOT youth |
Articles containing “race discrimination” but not “youth”. Using NOT will give you fewer results. |
|
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Wildcard Searching
You can use wildcard characters to find variations on your search terms. There are single and multiple character wildcards:
Single character:
Use a question mark (?) for a single character wildcard search. For example, if you used the search term "wom?n", you will find records that contain the words "woman", "womxn, and "women."
Multiple Character
Use an asterisk (*) for a multiple character wildcard search. For example, if you used the search term "japan*," you will find records that contain the words "Japan," "Japanese," and so on.
Note: A wildcard cannot be used at the beginning of a search term. The system will ignore the wildcard if you do so.
Phrase Searching
To search for an exact phrase (where the words are in a specific order), type quotation marks around your search phrase. If you do not include quotation marks, you will get results with items that contain the individual words in the phrase, but they may not necessarily be located together or in the order you want.
Example: "third wave feminism". By typing the phrase with quotations, we avoided anything having to do with actual waves.
