Conduct a Power Search

A Power search is a more complex search interface that lets you use Boolean operators and additional limiters. For a less complex search, conduct a Basic search.

To conduct a Power search:

1. Select Catalog > Library Search > Power sub-tab.
2. From the first drop-down, select the type of search you want to perform: Keyword, Title, Author, Subject, Series or Note.
3. In the next field, enter a search phrase or term.
4. From the second drop-down, select how you want Destiny to search with the search term:
   • All these words: Finds materials that contain all of the words in the search term.
   • Any of these words: Finds materials that include at least one of the words in the search term.
   • Starts with: Finds materials that begin with the words you enter.

     Note: The Starts with selection is not available if you chose Keyword or Note in the first drop-down.

   • This exact phrase: Finds materials that include a particular phrase.
5. If you want to narrow your search using the AND, OR, or NOT Boolean operators, select the appropriate option and complete steps 2-4 for the additional search term.

   

6. Select any of the limiters to narrow your search (optional).
7. To reset selections (optional), at the top of the page, click Clear. 
8. To include One Search results in your search, select the Include Online Resources checkbox. Choose the resources to include in the search from the list of available resources.

   

   Note: For One Search to appear in your search results, Destiny must have preset selected databases. See Set Up One Search.

9. Click Search at the top or bottom of the page.

Search Results

After clicking a search button, search results appear on up to four different sub-tabs, depending on material type.

• Titles lists the media center materials matching your search term, including eBooks and audiobooks.
• Web Sites lists the websites that have information about the search term. If your media center subscribes to WebPath Express, each entry has a link to open the website.
• One Search lists the resources in your online databases, if your media center subscribes to One Search.
• Digital Resources lists videos, pictures and sound files from a digital provider, if your media center has them. Each entry has a link to play the resource.

Any of these materials and resources can be added to a Resource List.

To learn more, see One Search Results and Find Digital Resources.

Other Power Search Page Features

Besides searching, on this page you can also:

• See the top 10 most popular titles in your library (if available) by clicking Top 10. To learn more, see View Top 10 Titles.
• View or repeat any searches that you have previously done by clicking My Searches. To learn more, see Use Search History.

For search tips, see Library Search FAQs.

For more information on training resources, visit Follett Community.

Use 'All these words'

If you choose this first option from the drop-down, Destiny returns only items with all of the words you enter; it actually places the word AND between the words.
If you get too many results, just add more words or use more fields to narrow your search.

Example: A title search for secrets potter returns only items that have both secrets and potter in the title, in any order. Results would include Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets but not any other Harry Potter books or books like Secrets of Animal Behavior.

If there are words that you know are not in the title, author, subject or series, put NOT (and a space) in front of each unwanted word. Make sure to use all uppercase letters; Destiny ignores not and Not.

Example: You are trying to find a Goosebumps book with night in the title, but you do not want one of the three Night of the Living Dummy books. Select Title and enter night NOT dummy. Select AND. In the second row, select Series and enter goosebumps. The search results include only A Night in Terror Tower, Night in Werewolf Woods, and Night of a Thousand Claws. If you had entered goosebumps NOT give next to Series, the results would only include books in the Goosebumps series, not the Give Yourself Goosebumps series. In this case, the search results would only have A Night in Terror Tower.

Use 'Any of these words'

If you choose this second option from the drop-down, Destiny returns items with any of the words you enter; it actually places the word OR between your search words. If you get too many results, delete one or more of the words, or use more fields to narrow your search.

Example: You are trying to find a Goosebumps book with night in the title, but you are not sure if it is night, nightmare or midnight. You would select Title and enter night nightmare midnight, select AND, then select Series and enter goosebumps. The search results list then contains all the Goosebumps books with night, nightmare or midnight in the title.

Use 'This exact phrase'

If you choose this from the list, Destiny returns only items that contain these words in this order.

Example: If you search for dead house, Destinyreturns Welcome to Dead House but not The House of the Dead or The House on Mango Street or Tick Tock, You Are Dead.

 

Note: Wildcards cannot be used in a This exact phrase search term

Use 'Starts with'

If you choose this from the drop-down, Destiny returns only items that begin with the words you enter.
Note that Starts with is not available if you chose Keyword or Note in the drop-down on the left.

Example: A Title Starts with search for red would return The Red Pony but not The Hunt for Red October.

Keep in mind that Destiny ignores certain words, called stop words, in the All these words, Any of these words, or This exact phrase searches.
It does not ignore them in Starts with searches.

Example: If you enter on the road, Destiny usually ignores on and the and only searches for road. The search results would include The Road Not Taken and The Golden Road but not On the Road. If you select Starts with, however, Destiny does not ignore any of the stop words. Destiny would look for on the road, and the search results would contain the book, On the Road.

For information on stop words, case sensitivity, wildcards, punctuation and more, see Library Search FAQs.