Quick Search

The Quick Search on the most screens allows you to do a quick search on keywords across the entire database. This can be part of the title, or an artist's name, or even an instrument. Simply type in a search term and click Go. You may also choose to search a specific field using the drop-down before the Go button.

Boolean operators and wildcard characters allow identification of a large number of words corresponding to a defined pattern. This product allows Boolean searching in all search fields.

The term Boolean Logic is named after the British mathematician George Boole who produced a mathematical system of logical operators including AND, OR and NOT. This "Boolean Logic" has been adopted by search engines as way of assisting users in building their searches.

The AND operator retrieves all cases where words, phrases, and their variations appear in the same specified context (e.g., jazz AND flute). As you enter more search terms, fewer results will be retrieved but each result will be of higher relevance.

The effect of selecting Boolean "AND" is to limit the search results to only those fields which are relevant to all of the search terms. For example, if you search for "jazz flute" using "AND" logic, then results will only be retrieved where they are relevant to the term "jazz" and the term "flute". The result set would therefore contain all flute music that's jazz. A piece which featured the flute but which was not jazz would not be retrieved as a result.

The OR operator retrieves all instances where individual words or phrases appear. The effect of selecting Boolean "OR" is to widen the search results, by retrieving results that are relevant to any of the search terms. For example, if you search for "jazz flute" using "OR" logic, then the final result set will contain the total of three separate sets:

• Set 1: containing all music that's jazz
• Set 2: containing all music featuring the Flute
• Set 3: containing all music featuring Flute and that's jazz.

The NOT operator retrieves instances where one chooses to exclude a word from a search (e.g., jazz NOT flute).

1. Entering more search terms into andAND' search will reduce the number of results and help you to focus in on the most relevant matches.

2. Entering more search terms into andOR' search will increase the number of results and is particularly useful when you want to include synonyms of your main search term.