Searching with MetaSearch
MetaSearch allows you to search multiple databases at once, and offers a variety of options for viewing and saving your results.
Select MetaSearch from the Library Portal entry screen and login using your Murdoch Unsername and Password.
Selecting Databases to Search
Choose databases to search using the Select databases dropdown menu.
The options are:
My Databases : Displays your personalised database lists once you have created them in My Databases.
Quick Sets : Displays a list of QuickSets for your selection. These are the same as the Quicksets in the QuickSearch option.
Subject Categories: Displays a drop down menu from which you can select a category and sub-category of databases.
Locate: Search for a resource by words in the title, database vendor, any word, category or type.
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For example, select Subject Categories from the menu and then select a category of interest, such as Business.
- Select up to 15 resources to search by ticking the boxes.
- Select either Simple or Advanced search. Enter your search terms in the search boxes and click go.
| Some of the resources in the Library Portal do not have a tick box. This means they cannot be searched directly from the Library Portal. You can link to these resources by clicking on the title. |
Entering your Search Terms
- To search for articles that contain all of the specified words, enter the list of words. For example: education children will return all articles containing both words.
- To search for a phrase use quotation marks. For example: "global warming"
- Use OR to find articles with at least one of the words present. For example: corn OR maize
- Use NOT to find articles with the first word but not the second word. For example: energy NOT nuclear
- Truncation: Use a question mark (?) for truncation. For example:
comput? will find computing, computers, computerisation.
- Field Searching: Use Advanced search to limit your search to a specific field like Subject, Year or Author.
To search for multiple years, use OR like this: 2000 OR 2001 OR 2002.
MetaSearch Results
The screen will refresh several times during the search process. Once The Library Portal has finished searching, it displays the combined results list. The results are displayed in the order of their relevance to the term(s) you entered. You can re-sort the results for some databases by title, author, year or database.
Results can be displayed in three views: Table View, Brief View and Full View. You can toggle between the different views. The screen below is Table View.
You can view the results of a specific database by clicking results by databases and then clicking the View or Jump link of any of the databases in the displayed list.
Points to note with Combined Results
The combined results displays an initial set of records retrieved in a set time, rather than the complete set. You can increase the number of records in the set by clicking on the "combine more" link.
The same search performed at different times may not obtain the same number of records. It depends on how quickly and in what order each database connects and searches.
Some databases have been configured so that the results are displayed in their native interface. While MetaSearch is searching, the Status column displays as "Search & Link" for these databases. You can click the Jump link to display a database in its native interface. The results for these databases will not be displayed in the combined results. |
Clusters and Facets
The Clusters and Facets panel appears on the right side of the Search Result pages and enables an at-a-glance view of the results according to their topic, date, author and Journal Title.
To filter the records in the search results list (in the left panel) by a cluster topic or by a facet (date, author or Journal Title), click one of the topic or facet nodes. Only those records belonging to the selected topic or facet will be displayed in the left panel.
To view all records retrieved in the last search, click All retrieved records. The list will be displayed according to the last sort order.
Note that clustering is performed only on merged lists. Results are only clustered in MetaSearch when you view the Combined Results.
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