With more than a semester of the new MadCat under our collective belts, the staff of the Music Library have developed a few alternate techniques for accessing music materials in the new system. This approach avoids using the computer to set Limits. The advantage is that you can retrieve results quickly. The disadvantage is that you may miss some materials. If it is important that your search be exhaustive, you should set Limits and search accordingly, ignoring the suggestions here.

All of the examples below, use the Keyword search. Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) must always be in UPPER CASE. Other terms can be in either upper or lower case, or a mix of both. The simplest way to ensure that the Boolean operators work correctly is to engage the CAPS LOCK key prior to doing a search.

To locate printed music (a score)

sample searches:
• bach AND magnificat AND score


• Please note that the term "score" may not always be present in a MadCat record -- for example, in solo keyboard music. In such cases, a more effective search would be:
• BACH AND FRENCH AND SUITES NOT SOUND
• By including the phrase "NOT sound" the computer will eliminate recordings from the search, leaving a smaller results list.

• sample search: bach AND mass AND sound

• sample searches:
  bach AND Jesu AND compact AND disc
• When there are two or more words used together, place them in quotes:
• Bach AND "Ave Maria" AND digital
• bach AND brandenburg AND "compact disc"

• sample search: bach and video?
  • The ? is used as the truncation symbol. That is, by placing the ? at the end of a word, the computer will retrieve words such as video, videos, videocassette, etc.

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