Handy Library Manager
 for Windows


Help, how to topics > Library Main Catalogue > How to define advanced search (query) and save it for future use?


Library search: regular search, advanced search, borrowers search.

How to define advanced search (query) and save it for future use?

Library administrators can use Regular Search or Advanced Search to search for the specific data in any table (library catalog, borrowers, loans, ...) . All windows include the same search interface.

Regular Search is active right away when you open selected table. Regular search supports search in the selected list of data fields. Regular search is customized for some tables. For example Manage Loans table offers ready to use search definitions for outstanding, overdue, or loaned out items.

Click Advanced Search to activate Advanced Search panel. Advanced Search gives library administrators' power of SQL queries in a simple to use interface. Administrators can build simple or complex search queries. Advanced Search definitions could be saved for future use, saved search definitions are listed in the View box.

For library members Handy Library Manager offers two search modules. Desktop Search (desktop OPAC) and Web Search (web OPAC) are included in the installation. The unlimited use (users/computers) of those modules is granted without extra payment.


How to define advanced search and save it for future use?

How to define advanced search (query) and save it for future use?

  • Select TYPE (1) in the Field box.
  • Select Contains in the Condition box.
  • Enter DVD (2) into the Value box.
  • Click Include (3).
  • Search condition is displayed in the Search Conditions box (4).

  • Click OR (1). We will define Boolean search with OR condition (Type=DVD OR TYPE=CD).
  • Enter CD (2) into the Value box.
  • Click Include (3).
  • New search condition is displayed in the Search Conditions box (4).

  • Click Search (1).
  • Review results (2). Library main table displays only library items that have CD or DVD type.
  • Click Save (3) to save the search (query definition) for future use. If you use some searches very often you do not want to repeat the search definition each time. Our small library software allows you to save the most often used searches for future use.

  • Enter search name (Movies Music) (1) into the Filter Name box.
  • Click Save (2).

  • Click Clear (1) to display all items in the library main catalogue.
  • Click View to display all predefined searches. The new search is listed in the View box. Select Movies Music (2)

  • The selected View is displayed in the View box (1).
  • Review items displayed (2), only library DVDs and CDs are displayed in the main catalogue.
  • Click Clear (3) to return to all library items.

Regular Search

Regular Search

How to start a search. In the Field To Search box, select the field. In the Text To Find, enter words that you are looking for. Click Search. In response to your search, you will see a list of the items that contain the piece of data you are looking for. Click Clear to display all records.


Date Added option is using DATE_ADDED data field. DATE_ADDED value is created automatically by the program and is equal to the date when records was created. Use this option in the following situations: print bar code labels or print spine labels for recently added items, edit information for new items, print new items inventory report.


Regular search is optimized for some tables. For example Manage Loans table offers ready to use search definitions for outstanding, overdue, or loaned out items.


Question: This is exactly what I want to do, but I'm trying to figure out how to filter by shelf or section. With Dewey classification, the books are grouped by fiction (FIC), picture books (PIC), biographies (B) and then by number from 0-999. So if I just wanted to print out the books in one section (say anatomy, or Canadian history) they would be in the 600 section, or the 900's. This would essentially be the same as printing out the labels by shelf. I tried to do a Boolean search with 6xx and 6** and 6?? (With and without quotation marks) but it didn't work.

Answer: To display books that have 6## in the call use the following definition in the advanced search box: CALL LIKE '%6__%'. There are 2 underscore characters they indicate any character or number, the above will list all records that have any 3 digit 6## value in the CALL


Question: I am making extra labels for each of the books with a removable cover, and to make this easier I have defined a field for this, and enter Y if the book does have one. I would like to use the advanced search to display only the items that have a Y in this field, so that I can easily print extra labels all at once. I cannot seem to make it work. To test whether my field definition was going wrong, I tried searching a predefined field - the IDNO field - and still I cannot make it work. Below is a screen shot after I clicked the Search button, and still all the library items are displayed, not only the ones that meet the condition. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong?

Answer: When you click Search, the search interprets what is in the Search Condition box. In your case there is nothing so the search is not executed. You define condition, then you click Include (inserts condition into the condition box), and then you click Search. To randomly select records to print labels there is flexible built-in feature: print, print copy markers.


Question: Can I run reports to find books that don't have anything in the Dewey Decimal field so that I can add those at the end also?

Answer: Use Advanced Search feature; define search with the DEWEY field; select is empty option.


Question: SEARCH: I see that there are several fields for search ... one seems to be a block where you can write in a paragraph and then there are separate numbered subject boxes. When I search for subject words, does it search in all those fields? If I want to enter several search terms for a book am I better off putting them as separate terms in the numbered search boxes or in the general text box search field?

Answer: Regular Search: in the library main catalogue, on the Search tab, select SUBJECT1, SUBJECT2, SUBJECT3, or SUBJECTS, the program will search the selected field. If you select ALL SUBJECTS the program will search in the following fields: SUBJECT1, SUBJECT2, SUBJECT3, SUBJECTS, and NOTES.



Question: How can I query the db using a text list of barcodes? All our entered books have a barcode number assigned. While doing inventory, can I verify a text list of barcode numbers against the db contents?

Answer: You can define advanced search with the OR option in the library main window. Additionally, you can save the list of barcodes in the text file and then use this file in the Library Audit feature.


Question: I it possible to do a library search using SUBJECT and KEYWORD and AUTHOR and TITLE?

Answer: You can define search queries with only one data field or complex search queries with many data fields.


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