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Searching the database
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Limiting your search by date and/or language
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Results screen
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Record display
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Displaying selections
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Saving selections
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Your Selections screen
To begin your search, choose a category from the drop-down list. You may choose from the following categories:
| Search category |
Description |
| Any keyword |
Search by name, title, subject, note or publisher name |
| Title/series keyword |
Search by title and/or series |
| Name keyword |
Search by name of author, illustrator or editor |
| Subject keyword |
Search by subject heading |
| AMICUS no. |
An AMICUS number search bypasses the results screen, to go directly to the record |
| ISSN |
Search by ISSN number. Note: omit hyphens and slashes in the number. Example: 03161196 |
| ISBN |
Search by ISBN number. Note: omit hyphens, price and qualifier (pbk). Example: 0838423620 |
Once you have chosen a search category, type your search term in the box. You can search for a word(s), phrase or number; you may use upper or lower case and most search terms do not need punctuation. Click the "Submit" button to complete your search.
Tips:
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Make your search more precise by using more than one word
e.g. macgregor roy rather than macgregor
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To search for an exact phrase, use quotes so that PIKA will search for the words together rather than as separate words
e.g. "acid rain"
PIKA allows you to limit your search results by date, as well as to books in a particular language.
To limit your search by date, choose an option from the drop-down list and then type the year(s) in the box using the format YYYY (e.g. 1994) for a single year or YYY# (e.g. 199#) for a decade.
To limit your search by language, choose a language from the drop-down list. The default, Any, searches all languages.
The Results screen presents the list of items that your search has returned. You can sort the results by:
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name
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title
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date ascending (oldest first)
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date descending (most recent first)
To see the full record for a particular item, click on the title. If you have only found one item, the full record will display immediately.
PIKA displays the full bibliographic record of each item, including name, title, series and publishing information, as well as notes and summaries where available.
To see the full records for more than one book on your results list, click the boxes to the left of the items and then click the "Display Selections" button. If you select several items, PIKA will show them one by one. Use the "Next" and "Previous" buttons to move from one record to another.
To create a selections list, or bibliography, from your search results, click the boxes to the left of the items you are interested in and then click on the "Save Selections" button. You can also add items to your list by clicking the "Save" button on the Record display screen.
After you have saved your selections, the Your Selections screen will display your selections list, or bibliography. You can view this list at any time by clicking on the "Your Selections" button.
From the Your Selections screen, you can print the list using your browser's print command. To e-mail the list, enter a single e-mail address in the box and click the "E-Mail To:" button. If the list contains accents, click the "MIME" box to retain the accents.
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