How to Browse and Search in Theseus

 

You can examine the contents by browsing and by searching.

Browsing

You can browse the items by

-          title,

-          publication date,

-          author or

-          subject heading.

Links to different browsing views are in the left sidebar.

 

In order to browse items of one collection only, first navigate to the collection and then choose the sorting preference. In other words, you can browse items of one polytechnic or one degree Programme. On the front page, browsing covers all items in Theseus.

 

Searching

Searches, too, can cover either all of Theseus, or focus on one of the collections. Search scope options are located under the search box. On the front page options are not available, as the search will cover all collections by default.

 

Search goes through the contents of items' metadata fields, and 10,000 first characters of the full text file. Restrictions on full text search may apply, but they are rare. Search is case insensitive, so that london, London and LONDON are equal. .

 

There are several ways to formulate your search:

 

 

Words and Phrases Search

 

The simplest searches comprise of one or more words. If many search words are entered, they all must occur in the item for a hit. (In Boolean terminology, AND is assumed.)

 

Write a phrase of several words inside double quotation marks ("united nations",)

 

Words can be prefixed with plus (+) or minus (-) Words with plus prefix must occur in the item and words with minus prefix must not occur.

 

Examples:

 

fireplace stove radiator heating – All four words must be found in the item, otherwise it will not show in results.

 

"public powers" +school –government – the phrase "public powers" must be found exactly so in the item. The word school must occur, "government" must not occur.

 

 

Boolean Search

 

Logical operators AND, OR and NOT can be used in searches. They must be written ALL CAPS. A more complicated search can be constructed by using parentheses. They change the order of execution, as in mathematics. An optional way to write operators, is &&, || and !.

 

Examples of how the system interprets more complex searches:

 

cutting OR editing NOT hair – (1) List items that contain cutting. (2) List items that contain editing. (3) Combine these lists. (4) Remove from this list all items that contain hair.

 

surgery || (operation&&hospital) ! veterinary – (1) List all items that contain operation. (2) From this list, find items that contain hospital. Keep only them and discard the rest. (3) List all items that contain surgery. (4) Combine these two lists. (5) Remove from this list all items that contain veterinary.

 

Field Search

 

A search can be focused on specific metadata fields. Available metadata fields are

-          title,

-          author,

-          abstract,

-          date (=when the work was accepted),

-          identifier (URN or Handle identification number; when searching for a URN, only enter the string after the colon : ),

-          ontasot (=level of the work),

-          polytechnic (=name of the polytechnic),

-          programme (=degree programme),

-          orientation (=orientation option),

-          language,

-          keyword (=descriptive words given by the author), and

-          subject (=controlled subject headings, given by the library).

 

The search syntax is, filedname:searchterm. Example:

 

polytechnic:”Satakunnan ammattikorkeakoulu” AND programme:”Fysioterapian koulutusohjelma” AND sport

 

searches for all theses from the Degree Programme of Physiotherapy at Satakunta University of Applied Sciences that contain the word sport. The search may also be shortened to

 

:polytechnic:Satakunnan AND programme:Fysioterapian AND urheilu - as far as the cut search terms are unambiguous.

 

With parentheses, several words can be searched in one field:

           

abstract:(”skin care” cosmetology)

 

 

Wild Card Search

 

Search terms can be partial. One character can be replaced wit a question mark (?) and a string of characters with an asterisk (*). For example,

r?d would yield red, rod, rid, rad, but

r*d would also return raid, reed, redeemed, realised, etc.

 

Fuzzy Search

Fuzzy search comes handy, if there is uncertainty of the exact spelling of the word. Fuzzy search is called by entering a tilde (~) after the word. For example, searching for a famous Russian composer, we get results by entering shoshtakovich~, although the correct spelling (by Finnish rules) is shostakovitsh. The right search term can also be of different length, so that sanker~ matches shankar. (For those interested, this fuzzy search is based on a Levenshtein Distance algorithm.)

 

Proximity Search

 

In order to find items, where given words occur close to each other, enter a search in following fashion:

 

”car repair” ~5

 

This returns results, where the two words both occur, and there are no more than five words between them.

 

Relevance Search

Search terms can be given different weights by this expression:

 

Example: floorballl^5 "futsal" ^2 volleyball expresses different level of interest into these indoor ballgames.