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Finding Specific Materials by Type (Using facets, filtering your search)
To search for an exact phrase, type quotation marks around the phrase. You can combine both words and phrases in your search.
Example: "Climate Change"
If you do not enclose the phrase with quotation marks, the system will find items that contain the individual words in the phrase, regardless of whether these words are located next to each other in the order specified.
If a comma is used to separate words in a list, the comma must be followed by a space. Otherwise, the system will consider the comma to be part of the word and return fewer results than expected.
To use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) within search phrases, you must enter them in uppercase letters. Otherwise, OneSearch removes them and performs a simple search that includes all search phrases.
AND and NOT – left-to-right precedence is used in case of multiple operators.
OR – left-to-right precedence is used in case of multiple operators.
If you search for words or phrases without specifying OR or NOT, OneSearch assumes that you are searching for all the specified words or phrases.
When you want to NARROW your search, use the AND operator to include ONLY the terms you're looking for
Example: I want to find articles about dogs that sniff fire hydrants. Search for Dogs AND Fire Hydrants
When you want to BROADEN your search, use the OR operator to include related terms.
When you want to EXCLUDE something from your search, use NOT to remove terms.
You can include the following wildcard characters in your searches:
* – enter an asterisk to perform a multiple character wildcard search. For example, type cultur* to search for records that contain strings, such as culture, cultural, and culturally.
You can use parentheses to group terms to clarify the order of multiple operators specified in a query.
Example 1: The following query searches for records that contain Zora Neale Hurston and either review or criticism.
Search for Zora Neale Hurston AND (review OR criticism):
For more information about grouping terms and precedence rules, see Grouping Terms Within a Query.
After conducting a search, you can filter your search using the facet menu on the left-hand side of the screen. Click the arrow next to each facet to expand filter options. For example, if you are looking for books, expand the Resource Type facet, hover over the Books option, and click the checkbox on the left to include only the Books in your search. Click on "Apply Filters" at the bottom of the menu.
Facet options for filtering include:
Sort By - Choose Relevance, Date-newest, Date-oldest, Title, Author
Availability at Humboldt - Choose whether you only want online, open access, or physically held items
Resource Type - This list is extensive and includes Articles, Books, Book Chapters, Theses, Reference Entries, and much more
Creation Date - Enter a date range to refine the years to search
Subject - Browse the controlled vocabulary to see other titles within a certain topic
Author/Creator - Find content by a specific author
Location - This is for physical locations within the library and can be useful for known item searches
Collection - If you want to limit to a specific database, this may be the facet for you
Journal title - Limit your search to a specific journal
Language - Update to only include items in a specific language
New Records - See what's been recently added to the catalog on your topic
The Advanced Search page contains the following components and options:
Search for – OneSearch has two Search Profiles: Search the Library and Expand Your Search. Search the Library searches all collections available to Cal Poly Humboldt Library. Expand Your Search adds other library collections to your results so you can request their materials!
Add a New Line – Advanced searches allow you to include a maximum of seven search criteria lines, which contain the following parameters: operator, field selector, search type, and search box.
Field selector – For each search line, this parameter allows you to narrow the search to all search fields or a particular field (such as title and subject).
Search type – For each search line, this parameter indicates how your search terms are compared against the search field. The following values are valid:
is (exact) – Returns results that contain phrases that exactly match the phrases specified in the query.
Results for title searches may include records that do not include the search term in the title. This is because exact Title searches are expanded to include the record's alternative title and authority subject fields.
contains – Returns results that contain all words in the phrase, but the words may be in a different order and may not be as close together.
starts with – Returns results that contain words that start with the specified string. This type performs left-anchored title searches only. When performing a Title search, it is recommended that you do not omit any leading articles from the title. For example, The Oxford Handbook is preferred to Oxford Handbook.
Operators – As with basic searches, you can include the following operators between words and phrases in each search line: AND, OR, and NOT. In addition, the Operator drop-down list allows you to select the operation that is used between search lines. For more information on operator precedence, see Precedence Rules.
If your query includes operators that separate phrases in which one or both of the phrases contain multiple words, OneSearch will use parentheses to group the words in each multiple-word phrase. For example, OneSearch will convert the query Donald Duck OR Disney to (Donald Duck) OR Disney to distinguish it from the following query: Donald (Duck OR Disney).
Search expansions (such as for synonyms) are disabled when Boolean operators are included in search queries.
Search box – For each search line, enter the search query text, which may include words, phrases, and operators (AND, OR, and NOT).
Filters – Filters allow you to narrow your results to specific metadata (such as a material type or date range). In the search results, you can include and exclude facets to filter your results further.
If you're not finding enough resources for your search, you have the option to expand your results to see what's available from other libraries. Current students, faculty, and staff have the option to log in and place a request for those items, both in physical and digital formats. If you're located more than 50 miles away from the library, you can request items be sent to your preferred address, however we request that all others pick up materials at the library circulation desk.
To search other libraries, find the link that says "Didn't find what you were looking for? Click here to expand your search>". It is located beneath the search and sign in bars, above the search results.
Sign in with your Humboldt credentials to be able to place your request. You can do this on the search screen, or within the record you want to request.
Sign in link located beneath the search bar:
If you see a record in your search results that says "Get it for me from other libraries", clicking on the title will bring up more information about that title.You can also sign in when you open that record, as seen below:
Once signed in, you will see the request options for that title. Each record will have the material type you can request, estimated delivery time, and length of time available for use, if the library you're requesting it from has provided that information. In the following example, you are able to request a physical copy or a digitized chapter from the physical copy.
Note: We no longer offer delivery to home options. The default is to pick up in the library. You will receive an email when your item is ready for pick up in the library.
Once your request is sent, you can check the status of your request in your account.