With 4.5 million books and more than 5 million microform documents in the MSU Libraries, it is important to know how to effectively search MAGIC, the Libraries' online catalog. There are several ways to do so: Author, Title, Library of Congress (LC) Subject Heading, or Keyword. This document focuses on the Advanced Keyword Searching (AVS) feature.
Keyword searching allows you to look for combinations of terms by using Boolean and/or proximity operators, truncation, and other methods. Study the examples below to learn how to better construct your own unique searches.
MAGIC is accessible via Telnet (host:magic.msu.edu) or the MSU Libraries' homepage at http://www.lib.msu.edu.
| SEARCH TIPS | EXPLANATIONS | EXAMPLES |
| ADJACENCY | The order of words matters. Multiple words are searched together as one phrase. For a record to be retrieved, all the words must appear in exactly the order entered. | canadian studies cambridge university press nepalese women |
| TRUNCATION | Words can be right-hand truncated using an asterisk (*) to look for 1 - 5 characters after a word stem. Use a double asterisk (**) to search for an unlimited number of characters (in one word). A question mark (?) can be used to look for an unknown character within a word. | environment* polic* huck** finn wom?n [finds items with words woman, women, and womyn] |
| BOOLEAN OPERATORS | Use and or or to search for multiple words in the same catalog record. Word order does not matter when using and or or. And narrows a search by requiring that both words are found, while or broadens a search by looking for any of the search terms. And not excludes words. Use parentheses to group words together when using more than one operator. | bernstein and conduct* great lakes or inland lakes art therapy and not music therapy (femini* or women) and science [finds items with words "feminist and science" OR "women and science"] |
| 1- AND 2- LETTER WORDS | 1- and 2- letter words are indexed and must be entered in the search statement. Please note: In Telnet, "++" will be stripped off of the search term. Do a search like" c++" only in web-based MAGIC. | vitamin d c++ b flat |
| PROXIMITY OPERATORS | Use near or within to specify how far apart words can occur. Word order is not specified. Near retrieves records that contain the specified words within ten (10) of each other. Use within # to specify the maximum number of words that may appear between the specified words. (The value of "#" has no limit.) | wind near gone gone within 3 wind welfare near moth** |
| COMMON WORDS | Common words, such as "of" or "the" are indexed and must be entered in the search statement. Words that are operators (and, for example) must be enclosed in quotation marks. | gone with the wind "war and peace" |
| FIELD SEARCHING | Searching by fields limits the search to words found only in specific parts of the citation. To search by field, use field abbreviations. (Boolean operators can also be used in addition to the field operator.) Available fields are: a: (author names); t: (words in titles); s: (words in subject headings); and n: (words in Notes fields). Be sure to include a colon (:) after the letter designation. | t:batman and s:superhero a:faulkner and t:hamlet n:native american studies |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS SEARCHING | The tables of contents from some of the Libraries' materials have been indexed in MAGIC. To search for words only in the tables of contents, use the field operator c: before the search term(s). (Boolean operators can also be used in addition to the field operator.) | c:overcoat c:zaire or c:congo c:human and c:genome |
If you have any questions about Advanced Keyword Searching (AVS) or searching MAGIC in general, please see staff in the Electronic Resources Help Room or at the Reference Desk. Both units are located on 1-East in the Main Library.
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