Using the Library Catalog

Initial Sort

Sorting options appear to the upper right after executing a search, just above the first results. The initial sort of all keyword searches is Relevance.

Sort options

Sort options displayed in the sort by: pull down menu, visible after completing a search, are:

• Relevance
• Author/Creator (a-z)
• Author/Creator (z-a)
• Title (a-z)
• Title (z-a)
• Publication Date (old-new)
• Publication Date (new-old)
• Date Added (old-new)
• Date Added (new-old)

Sticky Sort

When a keyword search is performed and a sort option other than the default relevance sort is selected, that sort option will be retained for subsequent keyword searches. The sticky sort will cease when the Start Over button is used, an Advanced Search is performed, or a Databases search is started.

The default sort for all searches in the catalog is relevance rank. Numerous factors affect the relevance sort:

• Uniqueness of a search term or phrase in all of the catalog.
• Proximity of search terms to each other within a record.
• Number of times a search term occurs anywhere in a record.
• If a record is smaller and the term appears, it gets a higher score.
• Specification of a field increases the weight value given to that word in that field.
• Some records are intentionally boosted by Penn Libraries staff to increase relevancy. For example, a search for new york times will bring up this record as the first result.