The basic search screen in FirstSearch affords the user a quick way to input information and get results. Researchers wishing to do more specific searching should take advantage of the "Advanced" search screen.

Pictured above is a sample advanced screen. To the right of each input line, the user will find a pull-down menu that provides more specific ways to find information. Not only is the keyword search available, but also a dozen other options for where to find the search terms, including in the abstract, author, descriptor, full text, and source fields. The advantages of being able to search specific areas of an article description are numerous, but the primary advantage is in pinpointing very specific information.

Notice also that the advanced search screen also allows for filtering the search by year and for limiting results to full text or to availability in the library's collections. Additionally, search results can be ranked by relevance and by date. When searches retrieve large numbers of results, having the ability to rank by relevance is a big time-saver.

In the sample above, we have further limited our original search on "hip hop" by including France as an additional topic. The result will be considerably fewer articles retrieved than in our original search.