These searches have been built by librarians based on common questions about our collections. Clicking the Special Searches button will bring you to a list of our curated searches along with descriptions for each.
Special Searches are designed so that, in most cases, you can further refine results yourself. For example, we have a Special Search for Children's eBooks available through our library. Clicking on it will bring you to a page like this, with the search results below:
If you would like more specific results, then you can also use the third field in the Advanced Search to add more search perimeters, like keywords, authors or subjects. Continuing with the same example -- if I wanted Children's books available online about tea, then I would add "tea" to the search, like so:
| LOCATION | includes COLLECTIONS | EXPLANATION |
|---|---|---|
| Children's | Board Books, Junior Fiction, Junior Nonfiction | Use to limit your search to items in our Book Burrow. |
| Internet | eBook, Periodicals | Use to limit your search to items available online. |
| LEaRN | Reference, (various departmental collections) | Use to limit your search to items in our Library for Education and Reference Needs (Reference items and various departmental collections). |
| Main Stacks | New Books, Nonfiction, Explore More | Use to limit your search to new books, items in our nonfiction section or items in our Explore More aisle (activity books, graphic novels, DVDs, games and kits). |
| Quarto | (by size) | These books are shelved separately because they are too big for our Main Stacks. Use this location in addition to Main Stacks for the most comprehensive search. |
| Rare Book Storage | (by size) | Use to limit your search to items in our rare books collection. |
| MEDIA TYPE | EXPLANATION |
| Spanish Book | Use to limit your search to Spanish language items only. |
| Reserves | Use to limit your search to resources used in classes at the Gardens (these books don't circulate). |
| DVD, Activity Book, Graphic Novel or Game | Use to limit your search to any one of these items, found mostly in our Explore More aisle. |
Selecting the Advanced Search option from our start page will allow you to apply multiple search criteria:
From here, you can click the down carrot to select various fields, depending on your search needs. You can also restrict results to specific publication years, and you can filter multiple locations or collections at once (and without using up your search fields!) by selecting from the options just below your search fields. For example, if I wanted to find nonfiction books in Spanish on gardening that I can take home, then I could apply the Media Type of "Spanish Book" and the Word(s) "Gardening" while restriction results to "Main Stacks" and "Quarto" Locations:
Explanations about the library's various Locations, Collections and Media Types are provided above to help facilitate searching.
