Stop Words

Symphony can be configured to ignore specified words when searching the catalog. This feature allows Symphony to search on the keywords of an expression. These stop words are usually articles, prepositions, or conjunctions. The following list identifies typically defined stop words.

For example, if you type the title The Book of Lists as a Title Keyword, Symphony locates items with the words “Book” and “Lists” in the title. The terms “the” and “of” are not searched. If you type a search expression that contains all stop words, the following message appears.

Your search contains all stopwords

Enclose the expression in double quotation marks to prevent the stop words from being ignored.

Boolean Operators

Operators link search terms and define the relationship between them. Operators help to focus the search. Boolean operators (AND, NOT, OR, and XOR) locate records containing matching terms in the library catalog. You can use Boolean operators to connect words or phrases between more than one text input field or use Boolean operators to connect words or phrases within a text input field. The following list explains each operator.

• AND –Symphony locates records containing all of the specified terms. For example, a subject search on “cats AND dogs” locates records that contain information on both cats and dogs. Records about only cats or records about only dogs are excluded.
• NOT – Symphony locates records containing the first search term but not the second. For example, a subject search on “cats NOT dogs” locates records only about cats and excludes any records about cats that also contain information about dogs.
• OR – Symphony locates records matching any or all of the specified terms. For example, a subject search on “cats OR dogs” locates records that contain information only about cats, records only about dogs, and records that contain information on both cats and dogs.
• XOR – Symphony locates records matching any one of the specified terms but not all of the specified terms. For example, a subject search on “cats XOR dogs” locates records only about cats and only about dogs. Records that contain information on both cats and dogs are excluded.

The Boolean operators can be in uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case.

Boolean operators are used only in Keyword searches. If your search phrase needs to use a Boolean operator as a literal, you can enclose the phrase in double quotation marks or use a Browse search. 

For example, if you are searching for the title "Not as a stranger" and using a title keyword search, Symphony will return titles that do not include the word stranger in the title (as and a are not searched because they are stop words). Instead, you can use a title browse search or enclose the phrase in double quotation marks.

In this example, the search for Not as a Stranger returns 1,446,796 records.

In this example, the search for "Not as a Stranger" returns 2 records.

If your search ends with a Boolean operator, you will receive an error, such as:

To correct the search, enclose your search phrase in double quotation marks or use a Browse search.