Multi-field search

Often, you will want to enter more than one search term at a time. You can't do that on the initial search screen. Note the line near the top of the screen where several other choices are listed.

The Multi-field search (near the red arrow above) allows you to combine information to target your search more accurately. Suppose you want to find out whether our Library has a copy of Sam Balentine's commentary on Leviticus. Enter the word Balentine in the Author field, and then the word Leviticus in the Title Words field. Then, hit Go.

This technique will bring you quickly to the record you are looking for.

Advanced search

Choose Advanced Search, near the green arrow in the illustration above. This type of search is even better for coordinating terms. You can enter up to three terms, and you have a full list of possible fields in each of the drop-down menus. You can even enter two or three different author's names, or more than one keyword, because the fields are repeatable.

Let's try looking for materials in our collection that deal with the Samson narrative in the book of Judges. On the Advanced Search screen, enter the word Samson in one box and the word Judges in another; because we want to do a wide and inclusive search, we will leave the Field to search defined as Keyword anywhere. Then, click on Go.

When the search results appear, look at the right side of the screen.

The search found 102 records containing the word Samson and 393 records containing the word Judges, put these two sets together and came up with 22 records containing both words. Chances are good that the combined subset holds the ones we want. To view the records, click on the number beside the word Total.