How to Use Omni

This page describes how you can make use of Advanced searching.

Search For

The default Advanced search is set to "uOttawa library + Omni libraries". This searches the collections of all Omni libraries (18 in total, all located in Ontario). It is possible however, to search only for the uOttawa collection by selecting "uOttawa library".  

Search Filters

The Advanced search screen defaults to "Any field." This is a keyword search, meaning that the words you enter here can be retrieved in any part of the description of an item (e.g. title, author, subject, ISBN, table of contents). If you would like to find a specific title, you can change this to "Title." If you know the author you are seeking, change the default to "Author/creator," and so on, using all of the options as needed. 

For example, if you are searching for the title The Handmaid's Tale, change "Any field" to title and enter the title. 

If you want to see all works written by Margaret Atwood instead of just The Handmaid's Tale, change "Any field" to "Author/creator" and enter the author's name. Example: Atwood, Margaret.

Further Customization

Omni allows for even more customization of your search through the combination of different search words. Beneath the "Any Field" default, you will notice the default word AND.

This default can remain as is, or  you can change it to OR and NOT. These connector words instruct the search engine to seek relationships between search terms. So, for example, if you want to find The Testaments, but after searching you realize there are too many books with that title, you could add AND Author/creator Atwood, Margaret to your search, so that your search would look like this:

Using the OR connector is most useful when you are looking for synonymous or highly related concepts such as 

"Science fiction" OR "dystopian fiction" 

Using the NOT connector is useful when you are trying to limit your results by eliminating a word or set of words. For example:

"Science fiction" NOT film* 

This removes results that contain the words "film" or "films" in the title or other searchable fields.

Image of Advanced Search box

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