In addition to basic and advanced searching, Encore also provides a few other options:
Tools appear to the right-hand side of every search result and allow you to save your progress, especially useful when you are working on a large project. From left to right, they include Add to cart, which allows you to save the item to a temporary list while still searching; Email, which allows you to send a link and information about this item to anyone you choose; and Export to RefWorks, which allows you to send citation information about the item to your RefWorks account. The final More Actions icon opens a menu where you can add a searchable tag to the item, if you think it's missing one. Above these icons is the Request It button, which allows you to request that the item be reserved for you.
Other Sources links you directly to the same search in Prospector so that you don't have to redo the search there later if it turns out that the item you need is not in UNC's libraries. It also links you to the same search in WorldCat, allowing you to see other libraries that might hold the item in case you can get it from somewhere else.
Related Searches suggests various other searches that have often been made along with yours, drawing from data from millions of other searches. Established Terms are the best choice, since they have usually been curated by librarians to confirm that they really are related, but Additional Suggestions may give you a good idea of other similar areas to expand your research.
Both of these options appear only after you have made a search in Encore, and can be found in the left column, underneath the filters. Links to Prospector and WorldCat searches are also at the top right of every search results page.
You can access Encore from the University Libraries main page by clicking on the Catalog tab:
To run a basic Encore search, simply enter a title, author's name, subject, or other keyword into the box and click Search! The major difference between Encore and Summon is that Encore searches primarily items that the University Libraries own; it ignores many subscription items such as online journals or music recordings from online databases.
Once you have searched for your item, you will you will be shown a list of results. By default, Encore will show items in order of Relevance, or how closely they fit your search criteria, but you can change this by clicking on the options at the top of the page: by Date from most to least recent, alphabetically by Author, or alphabetically by Title.
In the left-hand column, you can now use Encore's filtering tools to narrow down your search and make sure to weed out anything you aren't looking for. Each time you choose a filter option, Encore will remove everything from the search that doesn't match.
The number beside each filter option represents how many items UNC has access to in that area. Encore has more filtering options, falling into ten categories:
| AVAILABILITY: Choose whether you want to see only items that are physically in the library or that are only online resources. If neither of these matters for your search, ignore this category. | FOUND IN: Choose what area your search terms are found. For example, if you are searching for a book about Kiri Te Kanawa, you might choose Title or Subject; if you are searching for a work by Kiri Te Kanawa, you would choose Author. | FORMAT: Choose what type of items you are interested in seeing - for example, if you are looking for an audio recording, you might choose Music CD, Streaming Media, and Music LP/Tape to cover all the possible options. |
| COLLECTION: Choose which area of the University Libraries you would like to see items from. For music items, "Skinner Music" ensures that you will see only items that are held at Skinner (although adding "Michener/Skinner" may be a good idea to avoid missing any). | LOCATION: Choose which call number area of items you would like to see. This is not the item's physical location necessarily; in the example above, Mus CD, Mus Stks, and Mus Storage are all located at Skinner, but Mich Gov is located at Michener. | LANGUAGE: Choose the language you would like to see items primarily written in. Keep in mind that many works may list more than one language. If you are unsure, include "Undetermined", as some works may not have their languages clearly labeled in the catalog. |
| TAG: Choose the subject or topic of the items you want to see - for example, "Hawaii" or "popular music". Keep in mind that not every work is tagged, especially older ones, and if you choose a tag, Encore will ignore everything else. | PUBLISH DATE: Choose what timeframe you would like to see items published during. If you are unsure of the exact dates, overshoot a little on either side to make sure you don't accidentally filter out anything you might need. | PLACE: Choose associated places for the work. These may be where a work was published, where the research or subject of the work was mostly conducted or performed, or places that are heavily featured in the work. |
| GENRE: Choose a very general subject area for works you want to see, such as "popular music" or "jazz". Much like the Tag filter, remember that the Genre filter is a little more subjective and that some works may not have genres applied at all. |
A checked box beside a filter option indicates that it has been selected and that all other options in that category are being filtered out. For example, if there is a checkmark next to "Music Score" under FORMAT, the results will show only scores and sheet music and will exclude CDs, books, and so on.
If you don't see a specific filter or none of the top ones are useful to your search, click on the More... link below each filter category to see that category's full list of filter options:
To include filters for your search, check the box next to them and click on the Apply button at the bottom of the list. Anything that is not checked in this category will be automatically filtered out.
If you want to set your filters ahead of time instead of digging through a huge number of results, try the Advanced Search! You can access it by making any search in Encore and then clicking on Advanced next to the search box after the results appear, or you can begin directly on the Encore website.
The Keyword dropdown menu allows you to choose a specific place for Encore to search for your items - Title, Author, Subject, or Keyword. For example, if you set the dropdown menu to Author, then Encore will only search for the term(s) next to it under author names, ignoring any mention of those words anywhere else. If you choose Keyword, Encore will search everything that might contain that word.
Encore provides one AND search by default, which allows you to add multiple different search terms to create a more specific search. If you enter terms in the field next to that, it will search using the criteria from the first line and the criteria from the second. Alternatively, you can click on the buttons below to add an OR search, which allows you to tell Encore to search for one set of search terms or another, or a NOT search, which tells Encore to ignore any results with those search terms in them.
If you want to add more than two different search terms, simply choosing whether you want AND, OR, or NOT will make another one appear. If you want to get rid of one that you've decided against using, click on the black X to the right of it (or simply empty the fields - if there is nothing in the field, Encore will ignore it).
So, for example...
In this search, Encore would look for any items with "hawaiian music" in their subject and either "Solberg" or "Donaghy" as their author.
You can also set many of the same filters used in the basic search ahead of time. Format, Collection, Location, Language, and Year can all be set here; change the dropdown menus next to filters you want to use and leave any you don't want to use set to ANY. If you would like to include more than one choice in these filters, click the round plus button next to the one you want to add to; Encore will add a second drop-down menu, allowiong you to choose multiple options for each filter (for example, you could choose both Music CD and Music LP/Tape under Format).
If you want to include a different filter besides these five default ones, search first and then use your preferred filter on the results page.