Simple Search
See Grand Rapids Public Library Training Documents for a list of all Evergreen training topics.
Contents |
Simple Search Overview
The default search page for patrons is very simple. Practicing from outside the library? You can use the Michigan Evergreen catalog at https://demo.michiganevergreen.org It's a little different look, but the same data.
- It contains a single search box.
- You can select to search by Keyword (default), Title, Author, Subject, or Series.
- You can limit your search by format: All Formats, Books, Large Print, Audiobooks, Video Recordings, Music, or Electronic Resources.
- You can limit your search by branch. Inside a library, the default is to search the current branch. You can also search other specific branches or all of the Local Library System.
Choosing a Library to Search
On each page, Evergreen identifies which library you're searching. Choose a library to search allows you to change which library or libraries you are searching.
- Clicking a triangle or folder will expand or contract the folder's contents.
- Clicking the name of a location will choose that library for your search.
Entering Search Phrases and Searching Shortcuts
Keep the following in mind when entering search phrases:
- All search terms are joined by and by default. A search for civil war is seen in the system as civil and war.
- Boolean operators such as and, or, and not are searched for as words, not as Boolean operators, and are not considered special. Evergreen doesn't have any "stop words" that are not searched.
- Phrase searching is possible by using quotation marks: "civil war".
- Use phrase searching for exact titles, authors, subjects, or series: "The Secret" or "Shakespeare, William".
- To exclude a term from the search, type a space and - (minus). For example, vacations -british will search for materials on vacations, but not Britain.
- By default, search terms are stemmed. A search for dogs will also return hits with the word dog while a search for commit will also return hits for committed and committee(s). Evergreen using stemming rather than truncation.
- The search features of Evergreen are forgiving. For example, searching is not case sensitive, you do not need to enter the author's last name first, nor do you need an exact title or subject heading.
- There is also an Advanced Search available to patrons. Advanced Search is the default search when using the staff client.
You can use the following searching shortcuts in any simple search box:
- author: or au:
- title: or ti:
- keyword: or kw:
- series: or se:
- subject: or su:
Search Results
The search results are a list of relevant works from the catalog:
- The icons under the title and author indicate various formats.
- The number of available copies and total copies is displayed in the right-hand columns. Depending on which library you've chosen to search, you may see the results for one branch in comparison to all of GRPL, or just for all of GRPL.
- If there are many results, the results are divided into several pages. At the top of the list, you can see the total number of results and go back and forth between the pages of results.
Results Page Features
The search results pages contain a number of helpful features. Your search is displayed at the top of the screen, and you can refine or change the terms and search again:
At the top of the page you can also see the library location you searched, the type of search, what formats were searched, how your results are sorted and whether you limited your search to only available items. At the left, you may see a list of related subjects, authors, and series:
- Selecting one of these links searches the catalog again using that subject, author, or series.
- These searches are completely new searches, not a search within your original search.
- These links are drawn from the results on just that screen, perhaps the first 8 results. These links consequently change from results page to results page.
If your search returned no or few results, Evergreen offers suggestions on how to continue:
- Evergreen offers alternate spellings.
- Evergreen offers to expand your search to more locations.
Viewing a Record
When you select a specific title, you can view a detailed record of the title, including descriptive information, location and availability, and options for placing holds:
- The record shows details such as the cover image, title, author, publication information, and an abstract or summary, if available.
- At the bottom of the record, the Copy Summary shows how many copies are at the library or libraries you’ve selected, and whether they’re available, checked out, in transit, reshelving, etc.
- The Copy Summary also displays the call number for locating the item on the shelves.
- Click Shelf Browser or browse to view items appearing near your item on the library shelves. Often this is a good way to browse for similar items.
- Click MARC Record to display it.
- If there are any Reviews, a Table of Contents, or an Excerpt you'll see clickable links to view those.
- Click Details to find item barcodes.
- Click Place Hold in the upper right corner of the record to place a hold on the item.
When you’re viewing a specific record, you can always go back to a higher level to view the title group (all editions, languages, formats, etc.) or the original search results. At the left of the page, you’ll see links to the title groups and search results like these:
- You can select the link to My Title Results to go back to the listing of titles in a group.
