Advanced Search Tips

The Basic and Advanced Search screens in the PINES catalog are relatively self-explanatory, but there are a number of search tips you can make use of below if you wish to improve your search capabilities. You can use these tips in the basic search screen or even in a PINES keyword search box that you've included on your web site.

Syntax	Definition	Example	Example Results
*	Wildcard (asterisk)	teach*	Keyword search returns teach, teacher, teachers, teaching, etc.
-	Does not contain (minus sign)	teenage ninja -mutant	Keyword search returns records that include the words teenage and ninja, but not any of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles books.
“”	Search as a phrase (quotation marks)	“the help”	Adding quotes will search for the exact phrase instead of the separate words.
after(year)	Limits search to after publication date (includes the year specified)	nasa after(2018)	Finds the newest items
before(year)	Limits search to before publication date (includes the year specified)	macrame before(1980)	Finds the older items
between(year,year)	Limits search by publication date range (includes the years specified)	Kennedy assassination between(1963,1966)	Finds books that were published in the years immediately following the incident.
#available	Filter by availability	GMAT #available	Shows only the books that are currently shown as being available on the shelves (same as checking the Available checkbox on the search results screen).
sort(pubdate)	Sort search results by publication date (oldest first)	GMAT sort(pubdate)	Sorts list of results with the oldest ones first
sort(pubdate)#descending	Sort search results by publication date (newest first)	GMAT sort(pubdate)#descending	Sorts list of results with the newest ones first (same as the sort by dropdown list on the search results page).
sort(titlesort)	Sort search results by title (A-Z)	Nora Roberts sort(titlesort)
sort(authorsort)	Sort search results by author’s last name.	weight loss sort(authorsort)	Returns list of books in order by author's last name
audience(a,b,c,d,j)	Limit search results by the audience type fixed field (a=0-5, b=6-8, c=9-13, d=14-17, j=0-17) – an item can only be assigned one audience type	Neil Gaiman audience(a,b,c)	Returns books by this author that are children’s books only.
kw: or keyword:	Use to create complex searches in a basic search field	ti:help au:stockett	Searches records that contain “help” in the title fields and “stockett” in the author fields.
title: or ti:
author: or au:
subject: or su:

Example Searches

au:gaiman audience(a,b,c) after(2013) sort(titlesort)
ti:easter audience(a,b) sort(pubdate)#descending
kennedy assassination between(1963,1966) sort(authorsort)