The Basics of Advanced Applications Database (AAD) Search

• Basic search
• "OR" searches
• "AND" searches
• Does capitalization matter?

Basic Search

To enter a search term or keyword into AAD, just type in a few descriptive words and hit the 'enter' key (or click on the Search button) for a list of relevant search option results.

By default, AAD only returns results that include all of your words that compose the search term/keyword. For example, "visual image" will not return results containing only the word visual or the word image, but it will return results containing "visual image".

AND and OR combined operators are not supported by AAD Search.

"OR" Search

AAD supports the logical "OR" operator. To retrieve search option results that include either term A or term B, use an uppercase OR between terms.

For example, to search for projects "3D image" or "image in medicine", select a search type like for example "containing", and search option "project" and just type.

Containing
Choose from:
Project - title, term abstract

"AND" Search

AAD supports the logical "AND" operator. To retrieve search option results that include term A and term B, use an uppercase AND between terms.

We strongly recommend this operator with keyword search option.

For example, to search for projects or resources whose keywords are "dissemination" and "education", select a search type like for example "exact match", and search option "keyword" and just type

Exact match
Choose from:
Keyword - title, term abstract

Does capitalization matter?

The AAD searches are not case sensitive. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for "cave immersadesk", "Cave Immersadesk", and "cAvE iMmErSaDeSk" will all return the same results.