Supersearch guide

Searching with Metasearch

Metasearch gives you the most options when searching Supersearch.

The first time you use Metasearch you will see Quick Sets. A quick set is a set of databases that has been set up for you by the library. The first quick set is called Start Here. It contains a list of useful databases you can search using Supersearch. This is a good place to start if you're using Supersearch for the first time.

You can choose any of the other subject Quick Sets from the list, or you can locate other databases to search.

Selecting databases to search

We'll use the Start Here quick set to show how to search in Metasearch.

The ticked checkboxes to the left of the database names show the databases that will be searched. You can search up to 15 databases at the same time.

If there are 15 or fewer databases shown on the screen they will all be automatically ticked. Click a checkbox to untick a database. Only ticked databases will be searched.

If there are more than 15 databases shown on the screen all of them will be unticked. Click the checkboxes of up to 15 databases to select them for searching.

Some of the databases in Supersearch don't have a checkbox. This means that the database cannot be searched directly from Supersearch. However, you can link to all databases by clicking the database title.

After selecting your databases, enter a search term in the search box, then click Go.

In most cases, if you enter more than one word Supersearch will do a keyword search for all the words. To search for a phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks.

Keyword searching
A search for sustainable design will match records where the word sustainable and the word design appear somewhere in the record.

Phrase searching
A search for "sustainable design" will match records where these words appear together as a phrase.

You can truncate a word or part of a word using *
A search for australia* will find records containing australia, australian, australians...

As you can tell from this example, you don't need to worry about using capital letters either, just enter your search term in all lower case.

Doing a search in the Advanced search tab

Click Advanced to switch to the Advanced search tab.

Click the Search in fields dropdown list to search in a specific field such as author, title or subject. The default setting is to search all fields.

Enter a word or phrase in the first search box. You can also choose an operator from the dropdown list and enter a word or phrase in the second search box. Then click Go.

Search results

Supersearch sends your search to the databases you selected. You will see a progress screen while the search is in progress, then Supersearch will display the number of results from each resource that was searched. When the search is complete, Supersearch will show the first set of results in a combined set.

You don't need to wait for all the searches to finish before viewing results for a database. Click View to see results for any database. You'll be able to view results from other databases later.

A link to View results for a database appears as soon as the search has been completed for that database. You can view the Combined Results after searching of all the databases has been completed.

If your search found a large number of records, only some of them will be retrieved at first. Additional records will be retrieved as you move through the results set. In the combined set you can retrieve more records by clicking combine more.

Viewing results in other databases

Click view results by databases to see results for a selected resource. Click view combined results to go back to the combined set.

Sorting combined results

You can sort records in combined results. Click the Sort by dropdown list to sort results in the initial set by rank (relevance), title, author, year or database. In most cases, you cannot sort when viewing results for individual databases. Results are displayed in the order returned by the database.

Viewing the full record

Click the title on the table or brief view screens to see the full view for a selected record. In full view, click Table View or Brief View to return to the results list.

The full view shows the citation details plus an abstract if available. It also shows the Resource (database) that was searched. The words you searched for are highlighted in the full view record.

In some cases the full text article may be shown in the full view. In other cases there may be a link to full text labelled External.

You can also click the SFX button to find full text and other services.

The Full Text button shows that a link to full text is available via SFX. Click to see full text links only.

Click the Resource name to link to the database.

The database will open in a new window. Where possible Supersearch will link you to the specific record in the database. In other cases it is not possible to link directly to the specific record so Supersearch will link you to the database start page.

Viewing results in the database

For some databases you can search the database in Supersearch, but Supersearch links you to the database to display results. You will see a results summary screen (usually this shows the number of hits) with a link to .

Click the arrow icon to view results in the database.

Refine your search

At the top of the Brief and Table view screens, click Refine to refine your search.

You can add a new search term to combine with your original search. Choose a Boolean operator and, or not to narrow your search or use the operator or to broaden your search. You can also choose to search for your new term in a specified field.

Focus your search

In the combined set you will see a list of topics, dates, authors or journal titles at the right side of the screen. These are called "facets". The number next to each facet shows the number of records within that facet. Click a facet to see only results containing that facet.