Limiting a Search Help

You can limit searches, with some exceptions, by:

In Basic Search limits work only with "Keyword" and "Title" searches. In the Advanced Search mode limits work with all searches.

As a search strategy you may want to start your search without any limits to decrease the risk of missing related items. If appropriate you can narrow an initial unrestricted search using the option on the Title List page.

There are three ways to limit a search:

1. "Optional Limits" on the Basic Search screen can be used to quickly limit a search to some of the frequently requested Library locations, e.g., Videos/DVDs, or to recently published materials.
2. on the Basic Search and Advanced Search screens includes all limit options and allows you to use more than one limit option.
3. on the Title List screen allows you to apply limit optionss on your search results.

To limit your search on the Search Limits page that appears when you click on or :

1. Highlight an option in one or more limit boxes. If limits are chosen in more than one box, they are automatically ANDed together.
• Date
• Select the equal sign (=) to limit the search to all items published in a single year.
• Select the greater than (>) or less than (<) signs to limit the search to items published either after or before a specific year.
• To limit by an inclusive range of years, enter the earliest year in the Date: box and the latest year in the Range: box (e.g., Date: 1998, Range: 2000)
• Location: also use the Material Type for other categories of materials
• Language: languages most commonly found in the HSU Library are listed first
• Material Type: also use Location for other types of materials
• Publication Status: applies only to periodicals and serials
• Place of Publication: limits results to materials published or created in a particular country, state, or province. Use with caution since only the first named place will be retrieved. For example, a work published both in London, England, and New York, NY, will not be found when limiting on works published or created in New York when London is listed first. A full list of place names with cross-references from names not used, is available on the Library of Congress website.
2. To select multiple limits within one limit box (for example, English or French language), hold down Control (Macintosh: Command) and click on each term. Within a limit box, limits are ORed together.
3. Click the Set Limits button to activate your limits. A message will appear on the resulting search screen indicating "Search Limits are in effect."
4. Click the button to remove any limits. They remain in effect until you clear them or exit from the catalog.