Searching with "a, an, the" in Alma returns different results

Symptoms

Alma returns different results when initial articles are included or left out in a search; for instance, "the old man and the sea" returns different results than "old man and the sea."

The Repository Search, Indexing documentation states that "You may either include or omit articles (such as 'the', 'a', 'an') in your search content. Materials have been indexed with and without the articles to enable consistent search results;" this should mean that the Repository Search should retrieve the same set of results, whether the query contains an article or not. This is not what happens; the search actually retrieves different sets with different number of results:
Repository Search > All Titles > keywords:
"history" - 212,794 results
"the history" - 188,349 results.

This issue is detected in any environment, in either IZ, NZ or CZ, with any type of search (keywords, title...).

Defect Status

Open and unresolved.

Workaround

Utilize initial articles (e.g. "the") when searching in Alma.

• Article last edited: 12-Jun-2018