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Research Guides

WRR103: Writing Essays

Refine Results using Filters

Your initial set of results will be automatically sorted by "relevance".  LibrarySearch relevance ranking is determined by: 

  • Frequency of keywords matched in the record
  • Hierarchy of keywords in the record
  • Proximity of keywords to one another 
  • Keywords matched in author, title, subject, or date field

You may want to change this default setting to sort in other ways. Alternative sort options include Date-newest, Date-oldest, Title, or Author. Each of these options are available through the Sort By dropdown menu highlighted in the following image. 

Alternative sort options.

Choosing a Filter

Choose any filter option from the left side menu to narrow your search results. 

Results page with location of filters highlighted.

Applying selected filters

Once you have selected one or more filters, you must click the Apply Filters button highlighted in the following image before the list will be updated with your search preferences. You may need to scroll down to the bottom of the filter section to locate the Apply Filters button. 

Results page with apply filter button highlighted.

Filter Options

Results can be narrowed by selecting one or more filters from the following filter groups:

Show Only

These filters allow you to refine your results to include only results that are:

  • Peer-reviewed: Articles that have successfully passed through an editorial process in which topic experts assess the quality of the research being reported.
  • Online: Library collections available via the Internet.
  • In Library: Library collections accessible only in person.
Format

This group of filters allow you to narrow your results to items available in a specific format or group of formats. The list of format options is dynamic, always beginning with the format appearing most commonly in your set of results and descending through all relevant formats in order of frequency. While only formats present in your search results will appear in this filter group, the following list includes all currently available formats:

Books
Patents
Articles
Reviews
Theses
Book Chapters
Journals
Scores
Conference Proceedings
Text Resources
Reference Entries
Videos
Audio
Images
Datasets
Standards
Web Resources
Reports
Archival Material
Maps
Manuscripts
Newspapers
Government Documents
Microform
Kits
Databases
Realia
Library

This filter can be used to narrow your results down to items located in a specific library or in multiple library locations. For instance, selecting "New College Library (Ivey)" will narrow your results to only those books in this library location.  

  Library filter menu showing New College Library selected.

Click to the left of a location to select it. Click to the right to exclude it.

Subject

This filter lists the Subject Headings each source in your results list has been tagged with. Subjects are listed in order of prominence within your results.

LibrarySearch uses a combination of Library of Congress, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), and subject tags from article databases. Search results can be narrowed through the selection or exclusion of multiple subject headings.

 Subject filter showing the subject Transgender People selected.

Click to the left of a heading to select it. Click to the right to exclude it.

Publication Date

Input a specific date range and select "Refine". 

Language The University of Toronto Libraries purchases material in more than 300 languages. This filter lists all languages represented in your search results.
Author/Creator

Only available in catalogue search (for more information on catalogue search, see Basic Search)

Options include principal authors, corporate authors, and government agencies.

Author creator filter showing the author Scott Alan Kugle selected.

Click to the left of a heading to select it. Click to the right to exclude it.

New to the Library

This filter is a great way to keep up to date on the newest items added to the library collection.

New to the library filter showing the filter New from last week selected

Click to the left of a heading to select it. Click to the right to exclude it.

Search in Full Text

By default, your LibrarySearch results include your search terms in fields such as title, subject, and author, but some records in LibrarySearch allow you to expand your search to the full text of the resource.

On your results page, use the "Search in Full Text" to exapnd your search.

Screenshot of the Search in Full Text option

Keep in mind that only full text searching is only supported for certain types of electronic resources, and does not affect many items in the library collection, including print books.

If your search terms are only found in the full text of the resource, those results will appear lower in the relevancy-ranked list of results than those which have your search terms in fields such as title and subject.

Searching in full text is most useful when your search terms are quite specific and you would be interested in results which mention your topic briefly.