Scope

• You sometimes may want to limit your search to a range of dates for several reasons, including:
  • You will better target your search if you are sure of a reasonable range of time during which a record relevant to your information need is likely to have been published.
  • You may want up-to-date information, such as medical info.
  • You may want information from a specific time period, such as articles contemporary to the the attack on the World Trade Center.
• The most important aspect of date limitation is that it increases the precision of your searches.

Ways of limiting your search

• pd - publication date
• py - publication year
• current# - current year plus # of years before the current year

Publication Date (pd=)

• This limits your search results to a specified date or range of dates.
• Format:
  • Single date:
    • s pd=yymmdd
  • Range of dates:
    • s pd=yymmdd:yymmdd
• Examples:
  • ss impeach? and president and pd=981200
  • ss blackbird and crash??? and pd=951007
  • ss s2 and hurricane? and pd=920800:921100

Publication Year (py= or /py)

• This limits your search results to a specified year or range of years.
• Format:
  • Single date:
    • ss <set or terms> and py=yyyy
    • s <set or terms>/yyyy (py is not required when used as a suffix)
  • Range of dates:
    • s <set or terms> and py=yyyy:yyyy
    • ss <set or terms>/yyyy:yyyy (py is not required when used as a suffix)
• Examples:
  • ss blackbird(3w)crash? and py=n number of back years back year.
  • Use it with the begin command when you search single or multiple files, OneSearch categories, or a combination of OneSearch categories and files.  
  • Formats
    • current1 results include the current year plus 1 back years
    • current2 results include the current year plus 2 back years
    • current3 results include the current year plus 3 back years
    • current4 results include the current year plus 4 back years
    • current5 results include the current year plus 5 back years
  • show current command displays the active current command.
  • To cancel current:
    • Enter the active current command followed by the word cancel, for example, current3 cancel.