Socrates, the Stanford Libraries' online catalog, has some improvements coming in the new year (beginning the weekend of January 6-7, 2007):
- Currently, entering two or more terms in a Socrates search will only find hits when those terms occur in the same field in the Socrates record. So for example, searching Bronte Eyre will get 80 hits, but will miss many of the editions of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte because "Bronte" is in the author field and "Eyre" is in the title field.
Beginning Jan. 8, 2007, if you search using "keyword," Socrates will automatically add "AND" between search terms when you select "Search Everything" or "Subject," allowing you to search more than one field at once. The result will be that a search for Bronte Eyre will get 103 hits. Note that if you enter an operator such as "AND," "NOT," "OR," or "XOR," or if you use quotation marks, this function is turned off.
- A Socrates search result will have new links to help you broaden your search result. If you do not find the results you are looking for in Socrates (or if you get zero hits), you can "Continue your search" in two other very rich resources.
You can either continue your search in Google Scholar (Beta Version), which includes many journal articles and other resources, or in OCLC WorldCat, which is a "worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by 9,031 institutions."
Give the improved Socrates a try at:
