The Advanced Search page is accessed by clicking the 'Advanced Search' text link located in the gray area of the top navigation bar.
There are many ways to refine your search.
- With all of the words:
This search returns only pages that include all of your search terms. However, the words may be anywhere on the page and can appear in any order. To restrict a search further, include more terms in this box or use this box in combination with other search option boxes. For example, if you are looking for entries on Bedouin culture in Syria, type Bedouin culture Syria in the "all the words" search box. Searching on all the terms will produce more specific results than just Bedouin, culture, or Syria.
- With the exact phrase:
Use this box to search for an exact phrase if the basic, or "with all the words," search returns too many results. This search will return only entries that contain your search phrase exactly as you entered it. For example, if you are looking for information on the most populous country, type that term into the "exact phrase" search box. Your results will be entries that mention just the term most populous country, rather than the words most, populous, and country. (Note: The exact phrase box in the advanced search has the same effect as putting quotation marks around a phrase in the basic search box.)
- With at least one of the words:
Use this section if you are unsure of which keyword to use or if you want multiple subject results. For example, if you type oil petroleum in this box you will get results with either one or both terms. In another example, if you want to find an entry discussing the news media in India but are not sure which keyword to use, type news journalism press into the "at least one of the words" search box, while placing India media in the "with all of the words" box. This will give you results including India media with any or all of the other terms listed.
- Without the words:
You can exclude words or phrases to narrow your results. For example, to search for Ithaca Greece but not Ithaca New York, enter New York into the "without the words" search box and Ithaca Greece into one of the previous boxes. This has the effect of excluding all entries that contain New York.
- Limit results by entry type:
Sometimes you may want to find results for only certain types of entries. Check the boxes next to the types of entries you would like to search. For example, if you want to find only images, check the "Images" box and leave the other boxes unchecked.
- Limit news articles by date:
For news articles, you can limit the dates that are searched by selecting the month and year range from the drop-down boxes. You must have the "News Articles" entry type box checked in order to use this feature.
- Full-text vs. title search:
Use the radio buttons below the search boxes to specify which part of the database to search. Full-text searches apply to the text of an entry, as well as to the title and header material. The title search applies only to the title. The title search will almost always return a smaller result than the full-text search, so it is probably more helpful for frequently mentioned subjects. The full-text search will help locate all the information on less well-known subjects.