When you first access this form, two keyword search term input boxes appear on the screen. The fields are separated from each other by two drop-down lists: the search within option, which defaults to Anywhere, and the connector option, which defaults to "AND".
The idea behind having two keyword fields is that you can use them in tandem to build very powerful searches. For example, you could build a search that looks for different phrases in different parts of a document (e.g., human rights in full text and Korea in the title). Or, you could build a search that looks for one phrase, but excludes all results that include another term.
To perform an advanced search:
- Type your search terms into the relevant input boxes
- For each set of search terms, select a document segment/field from the drop down to search in. For example, subject, title, or all fields including full text. The default option is anywhere except full text.
- If you are using more than one search field, select a connector/operator to establish a relationship between the two fields. The default option is the AND operator.
- From the Content Type limiter select which content types to search. The default selects and searches all content types.
- From the Date limiter select the date(s) you are interested in. This limits your search to documents published during that timeframe
- Click the Search button.
Selecting a field to search
Use the search in drop-down list to specify which fields you would like to search.
For example, if you select Subject from the drop-down list, your search will only return results for records in which your search term appears within the subject term
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- Anywhere
- Searches all the search segments noted below, including the full text
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- Anywhere except full text
- Searches the search segments noted below, with the exception of full text.
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- Administration
- The name of the president in office at the time the document was published. Note: this field is applicable to Government Materials and Statistics and Data, but not Newspaper or Topic Pages.
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- Agency
- The federal agency associated with the document, or that the document is about.
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- Author
- The name of the person who wrote the document. For some documents, it might include the member of the committee that submitted a congressional report.
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- Issuing Source
- The agency or organization that issued or published the document. Note: searching on a public law number will not retrieve newspaper articles.
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- Law Number
- The Public Law Number associated with the document. We recommend searching the law number in quotes, e.g. "P.L. 107-296". Note: searching on a public law number will not retrieve newspaper articles.
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- Subject
- Describes what the document is about. Subjects are terms that the editorial staff have assigned to publications to describe subject matter.
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- Title
- The title of the document.
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- World region/country
- The geographic area the document is about.
