OneSearch Mānoa Help: Basic Searching

OneSearch is a discovery tool that searches the Library's catalog  and some databases and article indexes.  The results include citations and sometimes links to access the material online.

On the results page, there are options for refining or tweaking your search.

• "Expand My Results" is discussed on the Expanding Results tab.
• Sort: by default, the results are sorted by relevance; you can change this to sort by date-newest, author, title
• Availability: limiting the results to any of peer-reviewed journals, online only, or open access
• Resource Type: articles, books, electronic resources, conference proceedings, etc.
  • Note that the only options you will see are the ones that occur in the resources you have found
• Institution: the library within the UH System that has the item
• Location: where the item is located in Hamilton Library
• Creation Date: limit the results to before, after, or during specific years
• Genre: type of resource; fiction, statistics, congresses, etc.
• Subject: subject headings assigned to the book, article, or other resource
• Language: results published in a selected language
• Author: personal or corporate author or creator
• Journal Title: results from specific journal titles
• Collection: results from electronic resources so you can tell which ones are most relevant for your topic
• Data Source: collection within the library which holds item

To use the Basic search in OneSeach, or main finding aid,  enter keywords and phrases into the search box.  You can also use Boolean expressions.

View the Accessing Resources page for information on how to access different types of resources.

A well formulated search strategy should give you the resources you want and not give you resources that you are not looking for.  Overly general or overly specific searches are typically not useful.   Here are some suggestions for creating effective searches

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Phrases

If some of your words belong together as a phrase, type quotation marks around them. Then, OneSearch will search for them as a single unit.

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Wildcard question mark character

The question mark ? will perform a single character wildcard search. This search will find records that contain the words woman and women. 

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Wildcard asterisk character

The asterisk —  * — will perform a multiple character wildcard search that finds variations, such as culture, cultural, and culturally. 

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Synonyms (Boolean operator)

To search for items that contain similar and related words, type "OR" between words and phrases. OR must be capitalized.

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Combine (Boolean operator)

To explicitly search for two words or phrases, type "AND" between words and phrases. AND must be capitalized.  By default, OneSearch will use an AND operator, but you should make this explicit if you are using other Boolean operators in your search.

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Exclude words or phrases (Boolean operator)

To exclude items, type NOT before type the word or phrase. NOT must be capitalized.

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Complex Searches using Boolean Operators

You can use parentheses to group terms within a query. This search will find you Irish AND either painting OR sculpture.

 

One you have decided on your search terms and the tweaks to your results, you can save your search to come back to it later.  See information on  the My Account and Favorites tab