Compass Help

Compass Advanced Search

Too many search results or not finding a specific resource?

From the Library home page, or Compass, try the Advanced Search to limit your keyword search to specific fields, to narrow your search by material type, language, and publication years, or to perform a complex search. By default multiple terms in a query will grouped.

Click on "Add a Line" to add additional search terms.

If wish to exit the Advanced Search box and return to the Compass main search page, click on Simple Search.

Select Scope of Search

Click on the drop-down next to "Almost Everything" to select what types of materials you would like to search.

• Almost everything-The broadest possible search, includes articles, books, ebooks, film, sound recordings and more in CBB libraries
• CBB Libraries-Books, ebooks, sound recording, films, and more.  This is the most similiar to CBBcat.
• Articles and more-Articles, books and ebooks, chapters, reviews, and full text in Bowdoin databases
• Special Collections & Archives-Searches the materials of  Bowdoin's Special Collections & Archives, including rare books, manuscripts, artists' books.
• Course Reserves

Select a Field

Enter a search term and click on the drop-down arrow next to "Any field."   This will allow you to choose where Compass searches for your search terms, for example in the Subject, title, or author fields.  Options for searching the ISBN, ISSN, or course reserve information will appear at the end of the "Any field" list.

Field contains

Click on the "contains" drop-down menu to choose the position of your search terms in the field selected.

For example:

• contains returns results of phrases that include your search terms, but the words may be in a different order
• contains exact phrase returns results in your selected field, author, title or subject, that exactly match your terms in the order they were entered
• starts with returns results that begin start with your search terms.  For the best results omit initial articles. 

Select Format

Click on the "All items" drop-down to select the format of the item of the search results.

Select Language

Click on the "Language" drop down to choose written materials in your search results in one of 20 different languages. 

Enter Year of Creation or Publication

Click on the drop downs and select the the Day, Month, and Year to limit your search results to a publication or creation date range.