Skip to Main Content

UC Library Search: Advanced Search

This guide gives tips on how to use the UC Library Search system.

Advanced Search

UC Library Search also offers an Advanced Search option. Use this search to build more advanced search statements and limit your results to specified parameters.

You can find the link for UC Library Advanced Search under the search box on the UCSB Library website.

UCSB Library homepage with the "Advanced Search" option circled for UC Library Search
 
If you have already executed a Simple Search from the UCSB Library website, you can easily find the Advanced Search link next to the search box near the top of your screen.
"Advanced Search" feature circled within a results page for UC Library Search
 
Using the UCSB Library Advanced Search you can create more complex search statements by using multiple search terms and phrases limited to a specific field, such as Title, Author, or Subject. You can also limit your results by choosing the scope of the search, the material type, language, and publication date.
Advanced Search scopes (Articles, Books, & More; UCSB Library Catalog; UCSB Course Reserves; UCSB Special Research Collections; UCS Discovery Network) ) and filters (keyword filters; material type, language; start date; end date)
 
 

Advanced Search Options

Search Scope: Using the scoping options at the top of the UC Library Advanced Search, you can choose where your results will be populated from.

Scoping Options:

Articles, Books, and More: Everything provided by all UC Campuses plus other libraries

UCSB Library Catalog: Resources only from UC Santa Barbara

UCSB Course Reserves: Resources reserved for courses offered at UC Santa Barbara

UCSB Special Research Collections: Resources only from UC Santa Barbara Special Collections

UCS Discovery Network: Resources from all University of California Libraries.

Radial buttons for Advanced Search scope options (Articles, Books, and More; UCSB Library Catalog; UCSB Course Reserves; UCSB Special Research Collections; UCS Discovery Network

Field Selector: Use the field selector to specify where a search term or phrase should be applied. The default is for the term or phrase to be searched in "Any field," but you can choose to search by Title, Author/Creator, Subject, series, ISSN, ISBN, or Call Number.

Animated GIF showing Advanced Search in UCSB Library Search with a cursor navigating through Search Filter options: Any field; Title; Author/Creator; Subject; series; ISSN; ISBN; Call Number

AND, OR, NOT: Change the operator between your search terms or phrase to expand or narrow your results. AND, OR, and NOT must be capitalized.

UCSB Library Advanced Search, Operators AND, OR, NOTAND: Requires both terms are present in the result list. Results will decrease as both terms must be present.

OR: Either term can be present in the result list. Results will increase as one or both terms can be present.

NOT: Removes a results with a given term. Results will decrease as results with that term will be omitted.

 

Search Type: Between the Field Selector and your terms or phrases, you can choose how your search terms are used.

contains: Results will include all terms. Terms need to be in a different order and may not be directly next to each other.

is (exact): Results will include all terms used in the exact order provided.

starts with: Results will include items that begin with provided terms.

Animated GIF showing options to change where a search term is located in the results of UC Library Search using the Advanced Search option between the search filter and keywords: contains; is (exact); starts with

Additional Filters: Use the filters on the right of your search to narrow your search based on the Material Type, Language, or Start/End Date.

Advanced Search filters in UC Library Search for Material Type, Language, Start Date, End DateMaterial Type: All items, Journals, Books, Articles, Images, Sound recordings, Video/Film, Dissertations

Language: Choose from 20 different languages

Start/End Date: Choose a range of dates by inserting day, month, year