The BCC Library Media Center Online Catalog gives you 2 options for searching by keyword.

A Boolean Keyword search requires the use of the Boolean AND operator (for more information on Boolean searching, click here).
All of the books found in your search will have ALL of the keywords somewhere in the catalog record that describes the book.

A Keyword Relevance search ranks the results of your search by their relevance.
This means that the books at the top of your results list will contain ALL of your keyword terms somewhere in the catalog record, with preference given to books that have the keywords in the title and/or subject fields.
The books at the bottom of the results list however, may only contain one of your keyword terms.

Boolean Keyword Search

In the "Search for:" box, type the keywords you want to search for separated by the word "and".
[If you don't see the "Search for:" box: click on the "Bellevue Community College" link at the top of the catalog screen.]

In the "Search in:" box, click on "Boolean Keyword (e.g. roman and architecture)".

Click the "Submit Search" button.

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The next screen displays the results of your search.

Your Boolean Keyword Search for "trees and washington" found 11 titles. The catalog description for each of these titles gives you the information you need to find the item in the library.

Using the scrollbar on the catalog panel, scroll down to the middle of the screen to view your results.

Look at the catalog description for Item No. 2. Notice that it is divided into 6 different categories:

• The title of the book --
  "First snow on Fuji"
• The author of the book --
  "Kawabata, Yasunari, 1899-1972"
• The publication date of the book --
  "1999"
• The location of the book in the library. This book can be found on the 2nd floor of the library with the circulating books --
  "Library Location: Circulating Books"
• The call number of the book. You will need the call number to find the book on the shelf. For more information on call numbers, click here --
  "Call Number: PL832.A9F813 1999"
• The status of the book --
  "Status: Available on Shelf"

Notice that your keywords do not appear in any of these fields.

To see the full catalog description for the book (including publication information and subjects), click on the title of the book.
[For an explanation of the full catalog description of a book, click here.]

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In the full catalog description for the book "First snow on Fuji", you can see that the keyword "Washington" appears in the Publisher field.

To find the keyword "trees" in the catalog record, click on the "Table of Contents" button.

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The keyword "trees" appears on the second line of the Table of Contents.

Remember that a Boolean Keyword Search will find all of your keyword terms in any part of the catalog record.
Because a Boolean Keyword Search retrieves books regardless of where the keywords are in the description, you will need to read through the entire description of each book in the results list to find the items that will be most useful to you.

Keyword Relevance Search

In the "Search for:" box, type the keywords you want to search for.
[If you don't see the "Search for:" box: click on the "Bellevue Community College" link at the top of the catalog screen.]

In the "Search in:" box, click on "Keyword Relevance (e.g. roman architecture)".

Click the "Submit Search" button.

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The next screen displays the results of your search.

Your Keyword Relevance Search for "trees washington" found 2504 titles.
[Remember that a Keyword Relevance Search will find all of the items that have at least one of your keywords anywhere in the catalog record. This means that the library has 2504 books that contain the words "trees" or "Washington" somewhere in the catalog record. It does not mean that the library has 2504 books on trees in Washington.]

The catalog description for each of these titles gives you the information you need to find the item in the library.

Using the scrollbar on the catalog panel, scroll down to the middle of the screen to view your results.

Look at the catalog description for Item No. 1. Notice that it is divided into 5 different categories:

• The relevance of the book to your search. Relevance is indicated by a series of rectangles. Books that are the most relevant to your search (those that contain both of your keywords in the title and/or subject fields) will have the most rectangles beside them and will appear at the top of your results list.
• The title of the book --
  "Trees & shrubs of Washington"
• The author of the book --
  "Lyons, C.P. (Chester Peter), 1915-"
• The publication date of the book --
  "1999"
• The status of the book. The library has more than 1 copy of this book --
  "Multiple holdings, click here to view"

To see the full catalog description for the book (including publication information and subjects), click on the title of the book.
[For an explanation of the full catalog description of a book, click here.]

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In the full catalog description for the book "Trees & shrubs of Washington", you can see that the keywords "trees" and "Washington" appear in the Title and Subject fields.
This book is about the identification of trees in the state of Washington.

Go back to your results list and look at some of the books at the end of the list.

Do any of these books have the keywords "trees" and "Washington" in the title or subject fields?
Where do your keywords appear?
Do you think that these books would be useful in finding information on the trees in Washington state?

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To continue the tutorial choose one of the following options:

Basic Search topics:
Author Search
Title Search
Subject Search
Journal Title Search
Quick Limits
Interpreting your Results

Copyright © Bellevue Community College Library Media Center
Updated December 5, 2002