Passing (pre populating) advanced keyword search page

[Sara Amato <samato@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to pass a search into the advanced keyword search 
page (e.g. http://phebe.bowdoin.edu/search/X) so that a user 
can fill in a search box on a separate page (e.g. 
http://library.bowdoin.edu) and choose "advanced keyword" 
from the dropdown, and have it go to the advanced keyword 
page with the search term box pre-populated.

I'm guessing there is a javascript trick that will do this, 
pulling the search term from the location.href and writing 
it out on the page in the search box, but I'm a bit clueless 
as to the details.   Have any of you done this or have 
suggestions?