Using inKUire Search

A basic search using inKUire is a keyword search against the items we have local access to:

• articles from journals to which we subscribe
• content from participating databases to which we subscribe
• freely available content such as from open access journals
• books, ebooks, archival materials, special collection and many other types of items from our library

With inKUire, you will find items including scholarly journal articles, newspaper articles, eBooks, audio files, and video files. A simple search of one or two words will return thousands of results; use phrase searching, field searching, and facets to refine your search and return fewer results.

Use the "Add results beyond your library's collection" option to include records from other library catalogs, articles from journals to which we don't have subscriptions, and records from databases to which we don't subscribe. You can request most of these items via Document Delivery Service

Keep in Mind...

• inKUire searches many but not all library resources.
• Comprehensive searches should be done in subject specific databases.

Searching Specific Fields 

inKUire will search across many fields automatically. For example, entering an ISBN, ISSN, or call number will bring back records related to those fields.

You can explicitly search a field using the strategy: field:(search terms). For example, the search title:(Art of Creative Teaching) finds records that contain those words in the title.

Use quotation marks with this strategy to find records with exact phrases.  The search title:("Art of Creative Teaching") finds records with that exact phrase in the title field.

Searchable fields:

• Title
• Subject Terms
• Author
• Publisher
• Publication Title
• Volume
• Issue
• Language
• Notes
• ISBN
• ISSN
• DOI

Using Boolean search syntax (AND, OR, NOT) will bypass features of the inKUire relevancy system (for example, stemming, proper name matching and so on). As a result, Boolean results will not mirror the results of non-Boolean queries. Boolean searches, depending on how they are written, can either limit or expand your search.

• The operators must be written in all capital letters to ensure that they are interpreted correctly by the system.
• In a query containing both AND and OR operators, AND is processed first, followed by OR. If a query contains parentheses, operators within parentheses are processed first, and then precedence rules are processed from left to right.

Boolean Searching Examples Using AND, OR and NOT

When two or more terms or expressions are adjacent with no intervening Boolean operator, an AND is assumed. For example, if you search for:

earthquake fault

you will get the same results when you search for

earthquake AND fault

To expand the results, use the OR operator. For example, if you search for:

microcircuits OR nanocircuits

your results will include items containing either term or both terms.

To search for phrases, enclose the phrase in quotes. Use any of the operators combined with phrase searches. For example, if you search for

"teacher education" OR "educator training"

your results will include either complete phrase.

To exclude items in a inKUire search, use the NOT operator or minus sign (-) character before a term. For example, the query

mustang NOT animal

will exclude items that refer to the horse, but will include references to the Ford Mustang.

You can add parentheses to nest expressions within a query. For example:

(Paint OR Glass) Applied

is the same as a search for

(Paint OR Glass) AND Applied

However,

Paint OR Glass Applied

is different. This is the same as a search for

Paint OR (Glass AND Applied)

Wildcard searches expand a search and will increase the number of results returned. inKUire supports two wildcards: the question mark (?) and the asterisk (*). Wildcards cannot be used as the first character of a search.

The question mark (?) will match a single character. For instance, the search "wom?n" will find both "woman" and "women."

The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters within a word or at the end of a word. A search for "sustainab*" will match "sustainable" and "sustainability."