Advanced Search enables you to perform a more detailed and specific search of the library data using Boolean logic. Boolean logic uses the words 'And' and 'Or' to allow the user to perform complex searches.
To access the Advanced Search, click on 'Advanced Search' at the top right of the Management screen.
The Advanced Search window will then appear where you can start creating your search. Start by using the menus at the top of the window to select criteria you wish to add into your search.
Notice that when the large box in the centre is empty, the box under 'Boolean' is locked to 'New'.
From the Field menu, select the field you wish to search in.
Next, choose the Operator from the available options. Note that the options shown in the Operator box will vary depending on the data type of the option selected from the Field box. For instance, should the field be a numeric field, you will receive Less than and greater than, whereas these operators will not show when the Type field is selected.
In the Value box, enter the value you wish to look for. When certain fields are selected, you will have the ability to choose from a menu but for others you must type in the value.
Click 'Add' to add the details entered into the Field, Operator and Value boxes to your search.
When you have added all desired criteria, click 'Apply' to perform the search.
This is a relatively simple advanced search, but they can get quite complex when more and more criteria is added. To add additional criteria, repeat the steps above but alter the Boolean options as appropriate (depending on whether you wish to add a Boolean 'And' or 'Or' search).
Select/type the relevant information into the 'Field', 'Operator' and 'value' boxes.
Click 'Add' and see how the search is added to the grid.
Note the difference between the 'Or' and 'And' Boolean options
There are certain fields in the system attached to the various tables where the value can only be one thing, a resource cannot be both a Film and a Book for example, so a Boolean of 'And' would return no records, whereas 'Or' will return resources that are one or the other.
The And field is best used when searching two different values, borrowers under a certain age and of a certain gender for example.
Brackets
You can also use brackets to group parts of queries together allowing for a very granular and complex search. This is normally done when you want to search 3 fields, using both an 'And' and an 'Or' search.
Left in the current state, this Advanced Search would show a lot more resources than those you are looking for. This search will show all resources that are the Book type and all Film resources that contain a keyword of 'weather'. To show only books or films that have a keyword of 'weather' we must use brackets to group the resource types together.
Individually select the rows and use the bracket buttons to add the opening and closing brackets.
If you want to save this search for use in the future, you can create a page view based on the current search.