Advanced Search
The advanced search on the Commons platforms allows you to construct your search and apply filters to find the most relevant results. At the top of the page is the advanced search box. There are two different search types; Logical and Proximity.
A Logical search allows you to use boolean operators and construct a search. You can include or exclude specific terms, and search in specific fields, like the author, title, or summary. You can add conditions (additional search rows) using the add condition or add condition group buttons.
Adding a condition group will allow you to combine multiple terms where they need to be true in order for a result to appear.
You can also view your query by selecting "View query preview". This will bring up a preview below your search that shows you how the search is formatting your query.
Proximity search allows you to search for two keywords that should appear within a specific number of words from each other. This type of search doesn't work with boolean operators (AND, OR, AND NOT), but can narrow down your results by specifying that the results should only be shown if they find both of your terms in proximity to each other. By adjusting the number in the search you can specify how close together the words should appear; by default, a proximity search will look for your keywords within 15 words of each other.
Below the search box for both Logical and Proximity searches are additional filters that can further limit your results. These filters include date, organization, organization type, artifact type, country, language, module, and topic. Selecting search will show you a list of your search results.
Boolean & Proximity operators
The Commons platforms uses three boolean operators (AND, OR, and AND NOT), and one proximity operator (NEAR) in their Basic search. Boolean operators cannot be used in the same search as a proximity operator.
Boolean Operators
AND
This boolean operator can be used to combine terms and narrow your search, and will look for both terms anywhere in the item's record or full text and show the result if both terms are present. For example, if you were searching for newspapers articles about Abraham Lincoln's assassination, you might search for assassination AND lincoln in History Commons.
OR
This boolean operator is used to expand your search by searching for two terms and returning any result that has one or both of the terms. For example, if you were searching for articles that discuss voting rights, you might use suffrage OR voting rights.
AND NOT
This boolean operator allows you to exclude specific terms from your results. For example, if you were searching for information about pandemic response but not about the COVID-19 pandemic, you might search for "pandemic response" AND NOT covid.
Proximity Operator: NEAR
Proximity operators work a little bit like AND, in that they only show you results that have both of the terms you've specified. However, they differ in that a proximity operator will look for the two terms appearing near each other in the text or item record.
Using /n after NEAR (where n is a number), you can specify how close together the two terms appear. By default, NEAR will locate results that use both terms within 15 words of each other; by using NEAR/5, you would only see results that have the terms within 5 words of each other.
Unfortunately, due to limitations of the Commons platform, proximity operators cannot be used with boolean operators.
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