Help: Boolean, Proximity and Wildcard searching
To narrow the scope of your search you can use the following special sets of predefined words, called operators, to join together your search terms:
Boolean operators
International Index to Music Periodicals allows you to combine your search terms so you can target your search at more specific areas. For example, from the Search Articles page you can find articles in International Index to Music Periodicals which contain the words 'film' and 'composer'.
You combine your search terms using the following special keywords, called Boolean operators:
- AND
- OR
- NOT
AND
The AND operator retrieves all records that contain the search terms it separates. However, this type of search normally retrieves fewer results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.
e.g. Chopin AND polonaise.
If you have entered search terms in more than one search box, International Index to Music Periodicals treats them as if they were combined using the AND operator.
Note: if you want to search for the word 'and' in a phrase, such as 'hue and cry', you should type the phrase into the search box and enclose it in double quotation marks; for example, "hue and cry".
OR
The OR operator retrieves all records that contain either or both of the search terms it separates. This type of search retrieves more results than if you searched for one of the terms on its own.
e.g. violin OR fiddle.
If you select more than one search term from a list, International Index to Music Periodicals automatically combines them in the search box using this operator.
NOT
The NOT operator retrieves all records that contain the first search term but not the second.
e.g. piano NOT orchestra
Proximity operators
International Index to Music Periodicals not only allows you to search for a particular word or phrase, but also enables you to refine your searches by using two proximity operators to look for words that are close to each other:
- NEAR
- FBY (Followed BY)
NEAR
The NEAR operator retrieves records containing terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in any order.
e.g.:
piano NEAR orchestra
piano NEAR.3 orchestra
FBY (Followed By)
FBY retrieves records containing terms that have a specified distance between each other, and are in a specified order.
e.g.:
piano FBY orchestra
piano FBY.4 orchestra
If you don't set a distance, International Index to Music Periodicals will list all items that contain the specified terms within 10 words of each other.
Wildcard characters
International Index to Music Periodicals allows you to retrieve documents containing variations on a search term by using the * (asterisk) character. The * character can represent one or more characters in a search term.
To perform a wildcard search:
- Enter the first few letters (or stem) of your search term followed by the * character.
If you are performing a phrase search, you can only use wildcard operators in the final word in the phrase.
Examples
oper*
Will retrieve entries for all records containing the words: opera, operetta, operatic, etc.
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