How to Search a collection:

Once you have selected a collection and are ready for searching, you can select your search field from one of the items in the list. The fields available for searching may vary from collection to collection. The Search menu indicates the data fields that are searchable for the particular collection. (See illustration on previous page.)

Below is an example of a search begun by selecting Creator from the list and choosing List All from the available fields.

The search shown previously is really straightforward.

What if you wanted to search by a specific data field?

First, select by data fields from the Search menu.

A pop-up list will show you all the available searchable data fields for the particular collection or collection(s) you have open.

Select a data field to search. In the example below, Creator was selected.

Now you can limit or expand your search using Boolean operators by defining the relationship of the field you have selected to some value that you add by either typing the value in directly or clicking on a value from the list.

The illustration below shows that the value "equals" was selected as the relation and "Bacon, Henry" was selected from the list.

Once again, you are given the opportunity to narrow or expand your search by selecting either And or Or. Either choice brings up another list of searchable fields to use.

Once you feel you have specified all the information you need to search, click on Search. After a search, the results may be modified by first clicking on the Search button and then selecting an option to broaden or narrow a search.

Click on New Search.

Select either Broaden Search or Narrow Search to modify your search.

How to perform a cross-collection search:

All of the relationships between descriptive characteristics, people, places, dates and concepts can be used for searching across multiple, heterogeneous collections. For instance, Luna Insight® maps collection data fields and structure against local and international standards such as Rutgers Core and Dublin Core or CIMI and then resolves the best fit of standards for the collections selected to be searched. You can search the collections simultaneously. You can create and save image groups based on any combination of collections. Selected images will contain the full data, conventions and format of the source collection.

You will need to select multiple collections initially to perform a cross-collection search. Click on File.

To select multiple collections hold down the Ctrl key on your keyboard while selecting collections with your mouse. Click on select when you have made your choice(s).

The cue that you have selected more than one collection for searching comes from the title bar on the top of the Group Window.

You can then search in the usual way. If you select Data Fields from the list, you will be shown all of the data fields for both collections.

Data fields that are not available for searching will appear in gray.

Use the scroll bar to scroll through the list to searchable fields for the collections you have selected. Where implemented, the metadata standard type and metadata standard fields would be resolved to the best fit for the collections. In this case, none of the metadata fit the two collections used as examples. You can tell this is so because the metadata are shown in grey.

Notice in the illustration above that the searchable fields are listed within the collections. Selecting any field will perform a search on that field and the terms and relations you specify that cross all the collections you have selected. Only items retrieved using the field, terms and relations you specify will be retrieved.

If it has been implemented for your collections, hierarchical searching allows you to search for an individual term in a hierarchy or search for a term and all of its associated, narrower child terms.