Search tips for KARLA

• Ranking: Search terms found in the Author and/or Title categories have greater relevance than those found in the publisher or contents categories.
  If search terms appear more than once, this also boosts their ranking. Recent titles are ranked higher than older ones.
  When entering a single search term, the matching one-word titles rank highest in the hit list.
• Filters: You can narrow your hit list by using various filters (format, subject, author, year of publication).
• Search operators: If you enter four or more search terms, you will also get hits not matching all terms you used. To modify this, you can use the AND operator or the + sign.
• Typing errors: Books & more allows minor typing errors and includes variant word forms.

Click on Advanced below the Books & More tab.

In the advanced search you can select different search fields and combine them with Boolean operators. With the setting Combine these search terms you can define the relation between the individual fields within a search group:

• All (AND) - finds only those hits that contain all words or phrases
• At least one (OR) - finds the hits that contain at least one of the words or phrases
• None (NOT) - finds all hits that do not contain the specified words or phrases

Additional search fields can be added with Add search field  and removed again with the X marks.

Complex search requests can be created with search groups. Click on Add search group, enter the search terms that are to be combined in the search fields and specify the combination of the search terms within a search group and between the search groups. This is an alternative to formulating a complex search query using brackets.

The search example of Witch hunt in the Middle Ages or the Early Modern Times is created in the advanced search as follows:

1. Enter the term witch hunt in the first search group.
2. Create a second search group.
3. Enter the terms Middle Ages and Early Modern Times in two different search fields.
4. Combine the search terms in the second search group with At least one (OR).
5. Combine all search groups with All (AND).

You can also select filters in the advanced search: Subject area, locations, format, language, access type, year or period of publication.

• Ranking: Search terms found in the keywords or the descriptors of subject databases have greater relevance than those found in keywords supplied by the author, in abstracts or full texts. If search terms appear more than once, this also boosts their ranking. Recent titles are ranked higher than older ones.
  Exact title matches are also ranked very high.
• Filters: You can narrow your hit list by using various filters. The most important are: source type, subject, publisher, content provider. By using the linkedfull text search limiter you will only get documents with access to licensed full texts and to some open access documents.
• Search operators: By default all search terms will be combined with AND, but other Boolean operators or proximity operators are also possible.
• Typing errors: Articles & more allows no typing errors.

Click on Advanced below the Articles & More tab.

In the advanced search you can select different search fields and combine them with Boolean operators:

• AND - finds only the hits that contain all the words or phrases
• OR - finds the hits that contain at least one of the words or phrases
• NOT - finds all hits that do not contain the specified words or phrases

You can add more search fields with Add search field and remove them again with the X marks.

You can also select filters in the advanced search.

Limit to:

• Full text access: finds only those hits for which Kassel University Library has acquired a licence or which are freely available as full text
• Peer reviewed: finds only those hits that have been reviewed by a panel of experts prior to publication
• Language
• Year or period of publication

Expand with:

• Also search within the full text: searches for the entered search terms in all abstracts and full texts (useful for very specific topics, see tips under Searching within full texts)
• Apply equivalent subjects: expands the thematic search for English-language terms to include alternative terms (based on the specialist thesauri evaluated in Articles & More)

• For one character: Use the question mark ?.
  Example: if you want to search for text or test, enter Te?t.
• For several characters: Use the asterisk *.
  Example: if you want to search for test, tests or tester, enter Test*.
  This also works within a word: T*ler (finds: taller, tailer, teller, etc.).

• If you want to search for an exact sequence of words, please use quotation marks.             Example: "Grapes of wrath"
• The phrase search also helps when searching for specific authors. By entering “surname, first name”, you only search for this one person. Example: “darwin, charles”.

• Boolean operators allow to combine search terms.
• The following operators are possible: AND, OR, NOT and in Books & more+ and - too.
• Boolean operators must be written in capital letters.

AND

• The AND combination is applied automatically when using up to three search terms. In order to get results matching four or more search terms you will have to combine them actively with AND.
• Example: you are searching for titles where the words international politics and Ulrich Albrecht occur: international AND politics AND ulrich AND albrecht

+ (only in Books & more)

• By placing the + operator in front of a word, you also obtain hits where this word is found.
• Example: +international +politics +ulrich +albrecht

OR

• Using the OR combination you get hits where one or both words are found.
• Example: you are looking for titles where the terms alcoholism or drug abuse are found: alcoholism OR drug abuse

NOT

• By placing NOT in front of a word, you exclude the hits that contain this word.
• Example: you want to search for titles that contain the word economics, but not the word Keynes: economics NOT Keynes
• NOT has to be used with at least two words. For example, the following search will not provide any hits: NOT economics

- (only in Books & more)

• If the operator - is placed in front of a word, all the hits that contain this word are excluded.
• Example: economics -Keynes

• If you want to execute a subject search combining various operators, please note that there is an order of precedence:
  1. NOT
  2. AND
  3. OR
• By placing brackets, you can ensure that the search request is performed in the form that you wish. Wildcards or the phrase search can also be used here.
• For example: you are searching for literature about witch-hunt in the Middle Ages or the early modern times. Your search should look like this: witch-hunt AND (“middle ages” OR “early modern times”)
• Or if you are looking for literature about diagnosing and treating ligament injuries, for example, but want to exclude the documents that deal with dogs, enter: (ligament*AND diagnos* AND treat*) NOT dog

• In Articles & more, beside Boolean operators, you can also use proximity operators to establish the maximum distance between your search terms. This option is particularly helpful if you want to search within full texts (see further below).
• The N (=NEAR) operator searches for the terms in any sequence, the W (=WITHIN) operator in the sequence that you have set.
• Example 1: football N5 team (finds hits where the two terms are no more than 5 words apart  and in any sequence).
• Example 2: football W5 team (finds hits where the two terms are no more than 5 words apart and in the set sequence)
• Proximity operators can be combined with Boolean operators and used for complex search requests.

• Example: (handball OR football OR basketball) N5 (team OR players)

• In Articles & more the standard search only browses through the title metadata (author, title, keywords, etc.). However, the full texts of articles, book chapters, e-books, etc. are also indexed.
• If you want to broaden your search to those full texts, please check the Also search within the  full text option in the Search Expanders.
• We recommend that you use proximity operators to get results of higher relevance.

By using special search keys, it is possible to display the newly acquired items on a particular subject within a set period. The two keys to use are:
a_date_last_23:[NOW-XDAYS TO NOW] where X is the number of previous days

and

shelfmark_word_23:"shelf*" where shelf is the beginning of the shelfmark; if 25 pol is used for shelf, for example, only the acquisitions at Holländischer Platz are displayed on the subject of politics. 55 inf would provide new acquisitions in computer science at the site Wilhelmshöher Allee.

a_date_last_23:[NOW-21DAYS TO NOW] AND shelfmark_word_23:"25 pol*"

provides the new acquisitions on the subject of politics within the last 21 days, if it is copied into the KARLA search field.

You can find all about site identifiers (“Wo steht was? = Where are items located?”) and subject groups at Shelfmarks.