Question

When I do an "as a phrase" title keyword search in my (Tomcat) OPAC I'm unable to search across subfields. Why?

Answer

The Voyager keyword index  is subfield-specific.   That is, it indexes the contents of the 245 $a and 245 $b (for example) separately.

So, a phrase search can't cross subfield boundaries.  A search like: TKEY "gone with the wind" will find records with the phrase "gone with the wind" in the 245 $a or the 245 $b (or any of the other subfields in your TKEY index), but would not find a record with 245 $a gone with $b the wind.

If your search logs (or patron complaints) show certain titles where this is a consistent problem, consider asking a cataloger to add an alternate title field with the desired phrase all in one subfield.   There are no indexing changes in Voyager which will solve this problem, it's fundamental to the keyword index design in Voyager.

• Article last edited: 21-Nov-2020