This screen helps you assemble sophisticated searches using the Callable Personal Librarian (CPL) query language without having to use a complicated syntax.
QUERY BASICS
A search query consists of a set of "terms" and "operators." A term is a word or set of symbols that you wish to find in the encyclopedia. Operators are special keywords that instruct the search engine on how to search for terms. For example, the query
wood duck AND robins NOT sparrows
consists of four terms ("wood", "duck", "robins", and "sparrows") and two operators ("AND" and "NOT").
Most operators work between two terms. When two terms appear next to each other with no operator specified, CPL automatically puts the operator OR between them. See the specific help relating to each operator for details.
Another important concept in searching is grammatical stemming. When grammatical stemming is used, a search for the term "run" will find all grammatical forms of "run", including "run", "runs", and "running". Unless specifically instructed otherwise, CPL always employs grammatical stemming.
USING THIS SCREEN
Build one term of the query at a time by using the three boxes at the top left of the screen. Select an operator to go between your current term and a previous one, if there is one, then type your search term in the "Search For" box. Next, specify the type of search desired from the "Type of Search" list. Use the buttons below to add or insert your search element into the overall query.
The resulting "Advanced Query" box allows you to examine the relationship between the search terms in your query. You can remove or replace items in the query.
To control the number of items returned by your search, use the slider at the bottom right to set the number of search hits desired.
When you are satisfied with the query you have constructed, click on the "Search" button.
