Using Evergreen Simple Search

From GRPLpedia

Complete Evergreen Tutorial Table of Contents
or jump to a specific subject:
Simple Search | Advanced Search | Placing Holds | Using My Account | Bookbags

Simple Search Overview

The simple search page allows you to quickly find materials from the GRPL branch you're in, or any other branch in the system.

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 GRPL, the Local Library System.

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Choosing a Library to Search

The Choose a library to search option allows you to change which library or libraries you are searching. On each page, Evergreen identifies which library you're searching.

Clicking a arrow or folder will expand or contract the folder's contents.
Clicking the name of a location will choose the library for your search.
When you choose a branch it will be signified by saying "This Branch". If you have trouble finding something broaden your search by changing your search location to "Local Library System"

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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".
By default, search terms are stemmed. A search for dogs will also return hits with the word dog and dogma while a search for commit will also return hits for committed and committee(s). Evergreen uses 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. You do need to spell the words correct but you can put them in any order you like.
If you need more specific instruction, there is also a Using Evergreen Advanced Search section.

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:

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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.
Your search is displayed at the top of the screen, and you can refine or change the terms and search again. You can also limit your search to available items only.

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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.

If your search for an item in Evergreen is unsuccessful, you can take your search to LakeNet, the Lakeland Library Cooperatives catalog. You can also search MelCat, which is a state wide catalog which allows you to have items sent to your home libary. Please contact Library staff for a full explanation of MelCat.

You can access both the LakeNet and MelCat catalog from any page on the Evergreen site by clicking on the "Search LakeNet" or "Search MelCat" link at the bottom.

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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 current number of holds.
You can click the "More Info" button to see additional information about the item. This information includes an abstract or summary, if available, the isbn, edition, publisher, physical description, and subject fields.
At the bottom of the record, the Copy Summary shows the copies 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 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 Recommendations to see recommendations from the database service Novelist.
Click Place Hold in the upper right corner of the record to place a hold on the item. See also Using Evergreen Placing Holds for more information.

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: