Searching MELVYL: Indexes

Scope

• MELVYL offers a wide variety of indexes, divisible into two categories:
  • Keyword
    • Primary indexes are author, title, subject, and periodicals.
  • Exact
    • Requires an exact match between the search terms and terms in the index. Exact periodical title (xpe) is such an index.
    • Using exact indexes produces a faster, more precise set of results, but you must know exactly how names, titles, or subjects begin.
    • All prepositions and punctuation in the name, title, or subject must be included.
    • NOTE: "Exact" indexes are not necessarily exact.
      • The results they produce begin with the term(s) being searched.
      • To make a completely exact index search, you must put double quotes (" ") around the term(s) being searched.
        • Example:
          • f xs cats produces 1,848 results beginning with with cats. (as of Jan 98)

          f xs "cats" produces 447 results beginning with with cats. (as of Jan 98)

• Locating indexes to search and fields to display
  • To find all of the indexes that one can search on, type help indexes.
  • To find all of the fields that one can display, type help fields.

Specific indexes commonly used in searching MELVYL include:

Index Name	Abbrev.
Author (last, first)	pa
Corporate Author	ca
Exact Corporate Author	xc
Title Words Note: If a search request begins with an article or has 4 or more words, it will become an EXACT TITLE search.	tw
Exact Title	xt
Uniform Titles (for classics)	ut
Titles (automatically interpreted as tw or xt) Note: If a search request begins with an article or has 4 or more words, it will become an EXACT TITLE search.	ti
Series Title Words	se
Subject	su
Exact Subject	xs
Numerical Indexes
ISBN	isbn
ISSN	issn
LCCN	lccn or lc
Government Document Number	gd or docs
Periodical Indexes
Periodical	pe
Exact Periodical Title	xpe
Related Periodical Title	rpe
Exact Related Periodical Title	xrpe
Limiting Indexes
[and] [and not] date [in mn/da/yr or year format]	--
[and] [and not] added added newest [in last 7 days] added since [date] added from [date] to [date] added from [date] thru [date]	--
form [medium] Note: Type help forms to see the types.	--
language	lan

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