Why Search by Relevance?

Relevance searching is less precise that other Catalog searches. It pulls up a list of records library materials in which at least one of the search terms occurs, so the list is generally long. To use the search most effectively, put in an as many important words that describe your topic as you know.

A search by relevance ranks the retrieved Title List according to a preset formula set by the library, based on the relative frequency, location and proximity of the search terms. More weight is given to terms in the title and subject headings, as well multiple occurrences of terms. Theoretically the most relevant materials on the search topic will be listed first.

Features

• Preset formula ranks retrieved item records by their importance
• Truncation of a root word ( ? ) to increase the number of results
• Phrase searching ( " " ) to reduce the number of results
• Require essential terms by prefixing the plus sign ( + ), and give them more importance when ranking
• You cannot use Boolean operators (and, or, or not) to connect terms

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For assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library's Reference Desk.

Last Revised: MS - 10/30/2007