Search the Library (Basic Search)

Catalog > Library Search

What do I enter in the Find box?

To start searching, you must enter either a complete word or a phrase (in quotes) and click a search button.

You can use uppercase or lowercase letters

Searches are not case sensitive. For example, searches for give yourself goosebumps, Give YourSelf GooseBumpS, and GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS all return the same results.

You can use wildcards

If you do not know the complete word, or are not sure how to spell it, add an asterisk (*) to the end of what you do know. An asterisk can replace any number of letters at the end of a word. However, the * cannot be used as a word's first or second letter or have any letters after it.

examples
You can enter croc* to find crocodiles.
You can enter teach*, to find teach, teacher, teaches, and teaching.

You could use a question mark (?) to replace a single letter. You can use more than one question mark in a word, but it cannot be the first or last letter.

example
If you are not sure whether it is allegators, allagators, or alligators, search for all?gators.
A search for all* would also work, but the results list might be too long.

You can also use a question mark to find multiple forms of a word. A search for wom?n finds both woman and women.

If you want to find a certain phrase, put quotation marks around it. For example, type "children's poetry" or "magic school bus".

Be aware that Destiny treats some words differently

Destiny ignores certain words, called stop words, in search terms. If you need to include stop words in your search term, switch to the Power tab, enter the term with the stop words, and select Starts with.

Depending on your library's preference, Destiny also may ignore leading articles such as A, An, Los, The, and Un. You can leave them out of your search term.

If the title begins with an A that is not a leading article, such as A, my name is Ami or G is for Galaxy, put quotation marks around the title.

You can leave out the punctuation

Destiny ignores the punctuation in a search term.
If your search term includes words separated by a punctuation mark such as a dash, double-dash, hyphen, or slash, leave it out. When you leave it out, do not replace the punctuation mark with a space.
For example, if you are trying to find Camp Ghost-Away, enter camp ghostaway.
If you are trying to find Katie.com, enter katiecom.

You can use Boolean operators

You can create a search phrase from several distinct words or terms with Boolean operators between them. These operators—AND, OR, NOT—define the relationship between the words or phrases in your search term. Make sure to enter those using uppercase letters:

• cats AND dogs gives you only the titles that mention both cats and dogs
• cats OR dogs gives you all the titles that mention cats or dogs or both
• cats NOT dogs gives you only the titles about cats that do not mention dogs

Keep in mind that AND narrows a search, giving you fewer results; OR expands a search, giving you more results.
Make sure, also, that you do not use OR if you mean NOT.

example
You want to find a nonfiction book by Isaac Asimov that is not about science. If you search for asimov NOT fiction OR science, your results will not include fiction but will contain science. You should search for asimov NOT fiction NOT science.

If you misspell a word

If you misspell a search word, or Destiny cannot find your word, Destiny asks you, Did you mean...?. If Destiny's word is correct—if it is the word you want—click the word to see the search results. If not, click Refine your search and try again.

example
If you type dinosors, Destiny asks you, Did you mean "dinosaurs"?. Click dinosaurs if that is the word you meant to enter.

How do I know which search button to use?

If you are not sure when or how to use the different search options, see these examples:

Searching by Keyword

When you enter a word or term and click Keyword, Destiny returns a list of items with that word almost anywhere in the record.

The Keyword Search is best used when you have a complex search term that contains keywords from more than one of the other searches (author, title, subject, or series).
For example, searching for Willy Wonka AND Dahl (title and author keywords) gets this result:
Charlie and the great glass elevator: the further adventures of Charlie Bucket and Willy Wonka, chocolate-maker extraordinary by Roald Dahl.

Searching for Goosebumps AND Stine AND legend (series and author and title keywords) results in just Legend of the lost legend by R. L. Stine. Had you just searched on just one of those three words, your results list may have been quite long. (There are about 100 books in the Goosebumps series, several authors named Stine, and dozens of books with legend in the title.)

To search for all items with the word west, type west and click Keyword.
With such a common word, the Search Results list would probably be very long. It could include items like these:

• Faster than a horse : moving West with engine power by Suzanne Hilton
  (The title has West in it.)
• West Virginia by Wende Fazio
  (The title begins with West.)
• West Side story
  (The title begins with West.)
• The friendly persuasion by Jessamyn West
  (The author's name is West.)
• Thrilling events : the life of Henry Starr
  (The book is about outlaws in the Old West.)
• Anansi does the impossible! : an Ashanti tale retold by Verna Aardema
  (The story takes place in West Africa.)
• The Gunfighters by Paul Trachtman
  (The book belongs to the series, The Old West.)

If the list is too large, enter a more specific term or choose another search type.

Searching for a title

Click here for details

When you enter a word or term and click Title, you get a list of items with that word anywhere in the title.

For example, to search for all items with the word west in the title, type west and click Title.

The Search Results list could include items like these:

• Faster than a horse : moving West with engine power by Suzanne Hilton
  (The title has West in it.)
• West Virginia by Wende Fazio
  (The title begins with West.)
• West Side story
  (The title begins with West.)

Searching for an author

If you know the author of a book, and want to find others written by the same one, enter all or part of the name and click Author.

For example, if you type west and click Author, you would get items with that word anywhere in the author's name, like these:

• The friendly persuasion by Jessamyn West
• The World almanac of presidential campaigns by Eileen Shields-West.
• After the fact : the art of historical detection by James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle

Author and illustrator names are stored in similar places in the records, so you can search for items illustrated by particular person using the same steps.

Searching for a subject

If you want to find items about a certain subject, topic, person, or place, enter all or part of it and click Subject.
Make sure to use the plural form, if your search term has one, instead of the singular. Enter flies instead of fly or lions instead of lion.

For example, if you type west and click Subject, you would get items with that word anywhere in the list of their subjects, like these:

• A treasury of western folklore
  (The book is about folklore in the U.S. West.)
• The silk and spice routes by Struan Reid
  (The book is about trade routes between the Far East and the West.)
• Lewis and Clark : voyage of discovery by Stephen E. Ambrose
  (The book is about their expedition in western America.)
• Nathanael West; the art of his life by Jay Martin
  (The book is a biography of Nathanael West.)

Searching for a series

If you enjoyed a book that belongs to a series, like Goosebumps or The Baby-Sitters Club, and want to find books in the same series, enter all or part of the series name, and click Series.

For example, if you type west and click Series, you would get items with that word anywhere in the series name, like these:

• Henry Brown, the outlaw-marshal by Bill O'Neal
  (This book is in the series, The Early West.)
• Weather in the West : from the midcontinent to the Pacific by Bette Roda Anderson
  (This book is in the Great West series.)
• Fundamentals of logic design by Charles H. Roth, Jr.
  (This book is in the West Series in Electrical Engineering.)

How do I Limit My Basic Search?

In Basic you can narrow your search by doing any or all of the following:

• Select a Location from the drop down and/or selecting District Media Collection checkbox.
• Select a Material Type from the drop-down.
• Select a Sublocation from the drop-down.
• Select an Award Winner from the drop-down.
• Enter a Reading Level From and to.
• Select an Interest Level From and to.
• Select Reading Programs from the drop-down.

How do I include One Search?

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

If One Search™ is enabled, searches conducted without limiters (Material Type and Reading Programs) include all databases that have been set up.

To include One Search in a Basic search

1. Select Catalog > Library Search > Basic.
2. In the Find field, enter your search term.
3. To remove all limiters, click the Reset All link next to Find.

note  When limiters are selected, online databases are excluded from the search.

4. Press Enter.
5. For results, click the One Search tab.

What are stop words?

These words are so common that searching on them is not productive. To save time, Destiny ignores them when they are used in Basic and Power searches. You can leave them out of your search term.

Destiny provides the following stop words. Your library may have a different list.

• a, an, and, are, as, at
• be, but, by
• for
• if, in, into, is, it
• no, not
• of, on, or
• such
• that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, to
• was, will, with

How are my search results organized?

There are tabs for different types of materials:

• Titles lists the library materials matching your search term.
• If your library has any videos, pictures, or sound files from a digital provider, Digital Resources lists them.
  Each entry has a link to play the resource.
• If your library subscribes to WebPath Express, Web Sites lists the websites that have information about the search term.
  Each entry has a link to open the website.
  Please note that the search results do not include websites if the search was limited by a reading program.
• If your library subscribes to One Search, One Search lists the resources in your online databases that have information about the search term.
  Each entry has a link to open the website.
  Please note that the search results do not include online databases if the search was limited by a reading program.

You can add any of these materials and resources to a Resource List. They appear on separate tabs there, too.

What if my Search Results list is too long? How do I find just what I want?

If your Search Results list is too large, refine your search, using a more exact term. By default, Destiny only returns things that include all your words.

• If you use more words, you get fewer results. Use North American birds rather than just birds.
• Be as specific as you can be. Use marine biology rather than science.
• Put NOT (in uppercase letters) in front of each word that you do not want. For example, pets NOT cats NOT birds will give you titles about pets—all kinds of pets except for cats and birds.

If the Search Results list is still too long, or does not contain what you want, try the Power Search.

What if my Search Results list is too short? How do I find more?

If you get too few results, you can either refine your search or browse through a list of library materials.

You can refine your search using some of these methods:

• Use a more general term. For example, use history or war rather than Spanish-American war.
• Try adding similar words with OR (in uppercase letters) in front of each. For example, cars OR autos OR automobiles.
• Try using a similar or related word. For example, if biosphere produces no results, try entering atmosphere, or biology, or even life.

You could browse through a list: Just click browse subjects. Depending on the button you clicked, it might be browse titles, browse authors, browse series, or browse subjects. You will not have a browse link if your search included limiters.

• To scroll through the list, click the arrows.
• To open a list of library materials, click an entry with a number in brackets.
• To open a list of websites, click an entry with a WebPath Express icon.

Can I just start over?

To erase your search term and any limiters you have set, just click Reset All next to the Find box.

What do See and See Also mean?

These are cross-references. If your library has them, you may see them when browsing. Your library uses them to point you to the correct term or to more information.

See means that the search term you used is listed under a different name.
For example, if you search for cars, the browse list may show cars See: automobiles. You can click that link to see the listing for automobiles. Next time, just search for automobiles.

See also means that, while your search term is correct, there are other topics containing related or additional information that may be useful to you.
For example, if you search for automobiles, your results could include automobiles See also: Ford automobiles. You can click that link to see books about those.

What are the Top 10?

These are the books that have been checked out the most in the last month. You can click Top 10 to see the list of the top ten titles for your library.
For more information about any of them, click its Details.

How do I look up my old searches?

You can look up and repeat any previous searches you performed by clicking My searches.

On the Search History page that appears, you can redo any search by clicking its name.

You will not see My searches until you perform at least one search.

How do I use my Resource List?

With your List, you can create and print a customized list of your search results. This can be useful when doing research and for finding the books on the shelves.

• To add all of the items in the Search Results list to your List, click Add Page to List at the top of the page.
  
• To add just the ones you are interested in, click Add to this List next to each one. Then, to see, edit, and print your List, click Resource Lists on the side menu.

If you do not want to make a custom list, you can print out the entire Search Results list by clicking Printable and then using your browser's Print option.

Search eBooks and audiobooks (non-Follett and Follett)

Library Manager shows the material type Sound Recording (non-musical) for audiobooks. Destiny Discover

note If you are not logged in, log in when the Destiny Discover pop-up appears.

1. Using a Basic or Power search, enter your search term.
2. In the Narrow your search to… section, select from the Material Type drop-down.

3. Click the applicable search button.
4. Browse Search Results to select a resource.

The Search Results page features the following eBook-related enhancements:

• No copies no longer displays for titles without copy records.
• Search results contain only publisher-hosted content owned by your school, even when you search across the district.
• Every eBook with a URL in an 856 tag displays an Open button.
• For non-Follett eBooks with more than one 856 tag, the Open button links to the first 856 tag in the record.

5. For eBooks, click Open. The Follett ebook opens in the embedded reader in Destiny Discover. For Audiobooks, click .

Open button

note In the Elementary interface, the Open button appears in Search Results and in Title Details page.

The Open button for all eBooks and the elimination of No copies in your Search Results makes searching and accessing eBooks easier. The ability to search for and access publisher‐hosted content in Destiny without signing in again allows students to access interactive content for classroom activities alongside your other library resources.

Icon key

Follett eBooks

Lightbox

Interactive eBook  

Non-Follett eBook  

Follett Digital Integration

After you successfully complete the Follett Digital integration, you can:

• View Follett eBooks in Destiny and Destiny Discover. In Destiny, eBooks appear on the Search Results page.
• Access Destiny Discover directly from Destiny when your login to Destiny is authenticated. There is a Destiny Discover option on the left in Library Manager > Catalog.