Search

Three Search Options

HAMK Finna offers three search options: Basic Search, Advanced Search and International E-materials Search.

Using Basic Search or Advanced Search you will find printed and e-books in the the HAMK library collection, as well as HAMK theses, journals and links to databases.

Select International E-materials Search to find articles and online publications in different languages, mainly in English. Primo Central is an index of millions of scholarly articles and publications.

How to Search a Book

Type words from a book title or author to the seach box. Finna will automatically offer you suggestions on titles and options to narrow your search.

Tips and Advice:

- Selecting Book material or Search in titles from the suggestions will narrow your search to books or their titles.

- Searching for a book title as a phrase in quotation marks can also help to speed up your search:

e.g. "mechanics of materials"

- You can combine words from a book title, author, publisher etc.:

e.g. hibbeler statics

- Try wildcards if you don't know the exact word:

e.g. engineer* technolog*

Narrowing the search

You can use the Narrow Search menu to narrow your search according to format (e.g. book), campus, language, (publication) year or timeline.

Search results can be narrowed by selecting several criteria at the same time.

By default, the menu displays the most relevant search results at the top.

Year filter and timeline

You can specify the publication year(s) by entering a range of years or using the visual timeline tool.

By clicking on the arrow, you can display the locations or formats (e.g., compilation, archive series, DVD) of a lower hierarchical level

You can delete criteria under the Narrow Search menu.

Retain filters

This feature retains your filters for new search. If you wish to carry out a new search applying the criteria, enable this function

Wildcard characters

? replaces one character in a search term.

For example, the terms “text” and “test” can be searched for using the same query:

te?t

* replaces one or more characters in a search term.

For example, the terms “test”, “tests” and “tester” can be searched for using the query:

test*

You can use wildcards also in the middle of search term:

te*t

NB! The wildcards ? and * cannot replace the first character in a search term.

Advanced search

Search fields

The Advanced Search page has several search fields in which you can enter search terms and phrases, and use various search operators.

Adjacent to each search field is a drop-down menu, from which you can select the field of the relevant record (all fields, title, author, etc.). If necessary, you can target a search to several fields by using several search terms.

Match drop-down

he match dropdown defines how to handle a query with several search fields:

• ALL Terms (AND) – Searches for records that match the content of all search fields.

• ANY Terms (OR) – Searches for records that match the content of one or more search fields.

• NO Terms (NOT) – Searches for records which do not feature the content of any of the search fields.

Add Search Field allows you to add a new search field to the form.

• Add Search Group allows you to add search fields for a new group.

• Remove Search Group allows you to delete groups.

To define the relationships between search groups, use the ALL Groups (AND) and ANY Groups (OR) search operators.

The above example concerning the history of India or China can be implemented with search groups as follows:

• Add the terms “India” and “China” to the search fields of the first search group, and define the relationship between the search fields by selecting ANY Terms (OR) from the Match drop-down menu.

• Create a new search group and add the term “history” to its search field. Define the relationship between search groups as ALL Groups (AND).

Combining search words

You can combine search words into complex queries with Boolean operators. The following operators can be used: AND, +, OR, NOT, and !-.

NB! Boolean operators must be typed in CAPITAL LETTERS.

AND

AND operator is the system’s default operator for multi-term queries that do not include an operator. When using the AND operator, the records included in the search results feature each of the terms in the search fields.

For example, to search for records that include “economics” and “Keynes”, there are two options:

economics Keynes

or

economics AND Keynes

+

The + sign can be used to indicate that the term must appear in each search result.

For example, to search for records that must include “economics” and may include “Keynes”:

+economics Keynes

OR

Using OR operator produces search results that include at least one of the search words combined by the operator.

"economics Keynes" OR Keynes

!-

The "!-" operator excludes records that contain the following term.

To search for documents that contain "economics" but not "Keynes" use the query:

economics !-Keynes

Note: The operator cannot be used with just one term. For example, the following search will return no results:

!-economics

Note: If the term begins with the operator, it can be included by using the backslash (\). For example: to search for !-character as search term use the query:

\!-character as search term

Note: The NOT operator can be used similarly with this operator. However, the NOT operator returns more results, some of which may contain the term following NOT.

Phrase searches

You can search for an exact phrase by writing your search terms within quotation marks.

For example, to search only for records which include the phrase “mediaeval history”, not “mediaeval cultural history” or similar phrases:

"mediaeval history"

Phrase search can also be used for single word. Search is then exact match of a search word without any other conjugations.

Tuning your search

Fuzzy searches

A fuzzy search generates results in which words similar to the actual search word also appear.

~ carries out a fuzzy search when used as the last character in a single-term search.

For example, a fuzzy search for the term “roam”:

roam~

This search finds such terms as “foam” and “roams”. The similarity of the search to the original term can be regulated with a parameter between zero and one.

The closer the value is to one, the more similar the term will be to the original term. roam~0.8

roam~0.8

The default value of the parameter is 0.5 if it is not separately defined for a fuzzy search.

Proximity searches

Proximity searches look for documents in which the search terms are within a specified distance, but not necessarily one after the other.

~ performs a proximity search at the end of a multi-term search phrase when combined with a proximity value.

For example, to search for the terms “economics” and “Keynes” when they appear within a distance of no more than ten terms from each other:

"economics Keynes"~10

Range searches

Range searches can be conducted using either curvy brackets { } or square brackets [ ]. When using curvy brackets, the search takes into account only the values between the terms entered, excluding the terms itself. Square brackets, in contrast, also include the terms entered in the range searched for.

For example, to search for a term that begins with the letter B or C using the query:

{A TO D}

For example, to search for the values 2002–2003:

[2002 TO 2003]

NB! The word TO between the values must be typed in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Weighted search terms

^ assigns a weight to the search term in a query.

For example, to assign added weight to the search term “Keynes”:

economics Keynes^5