1. Search field - Enter the terms you're looking for. If you're looking for a citation, you can paste the entire citation into this field. A couple of things to note about this field:
2. Once you've performed a search, the option to choose Drake Libraries or FastTRAC Libraries will appear here.
3. Search Scope - determines which collections will be searched.
Everything - All available databases and digital collections, all physical materials, course reserves, and eScholarshare will be included in the search. Although we call this scope "Everything," there are many databases to which Cowles Library subscribes that are not in the SuperSearch index, so you should also consult the list of databases and/or Research Guides as part of a thorough search.
Available in the Library - This will limit to physical materials in the library (books, videos, scores).
Course Reserves - Only search the physical materials placed on Reserve by your instructors. For electronic reserves (online articles, documents, and other downloadable files), find the eReserves for your course.
4. Opens the Advanced Search interface.
5. Navigation - Other tools to help with your research.
New Search - At any point during your SuperSearch session, click this link to clear your filters and return to the SuperSearch home screen for a fresh search session.
Find Journals - Takes you to our Find Journals page, where you can search for a specific journal or for articles from a specific journal.
Databases - Takes you to our Article Databases page, where you can look for databases by name or subject, or see a list of recently added and trial databases.
Library Help - View commonly asked questions, or get in touch with a librarian by phone, email, text, or online chat. We're here to help!
Browse - Browse the library collection by title, author, subject, or Library of Congress call number. Note: a Browse search only looks for physical material and most eBook collections, so it is the same as limiting your search to "Available in the Library."
6. Search History - View, re-perform, or delete any of the searches you've conducted during this session.
7. My Favorites - View and manage records you've saved to your Favorites.
8. Sign in to your library account. We recommend signing in to SuperSearch whenever you use it, for a number of reasons.
9. Menu - Contains links to My Library Account (which prompts you to sign in), Search History, and Saved items. You can also change the language of the SuperSearch interface here. When you are signed in, the Menu link disappears and you can access all menu items by clicking on your name.
1. Choose between searching within the collections of Drake Libraries (Cowles Library and the Law Library), or searching across all FastTRAC libraries.
2. Build your search query. Advanced Search allows you to join individual queries using AND, OR, and NOT operators. You can choose to search for your terms in any field, or limit the search to one or more of these fields: Title, Author/creator, Subject, Journal/Other title, ISBN, ISSN. In addition, you can specify where in the field to look for your terms:
Contains - Your terms can appear anywhere in the specified field, in any order.
Has phrase - Your terms can appear anywhere in the specified field, but must appear exactly as you've typed them.
Starts with - Your terms must appear at the beginning of the title. Note: this type can only be applied to the Title field. If you've selected a field other than Title, then change the search type to "starts with," the field will automatically change to Title.
3. By default, Advanced Search offers two search lines. Click "Add a New Line" to create a more detailed search query.
4. Search Scope determines which collections will be searched.
Everything - All available databases and digital collections, all physical materials, course reserves, and eScholarshare will be included in the search. Although we call this scope "Everything," there are many databases to which Cowles Library subscribes that are not in the SuperSearch index, so you should also consult the list of databases and/or Research Guides as part of a thorough search.
Available in the Library - This will limit to physical materials in the library (books, videos, scores) and many of our eBook collections.
Course Reserves - Only search the physical materials placed on Reserve by your instructors. For electronic reserves (online articles, documents, and other downloadable files), find the eReserves for your course.
5. Additional filters - Pre-filter results by Material Type (Books, Articles, Dissertations, etc.), Language, and Publication Date. For Publication Date, you can enter specific dates (only the year is required, although month and day are also available), or select the last 1, 2, 5, 10, or 20 years.
6. Query preview - This area displays a preview of the search query you're building. If you want to change anything, you can either go back up to the search fields, or you can click on the elements you want to change right in the preview.
