AVS Phase 3: Effect of defaulting to 'and' in scopes

["Graeme Leng-Ward" <G.Leng-Ward@xxxxxxxxxx>]

We have found that setting a keyword search default of  'and' works in the whole catalogue, but not in scoped subsets of the catalogue.
 
In our version 2002 Phase 3 Opac we wanted keyword searching working with default 'and' between multiple words (ie. not defaulting to adjacency or phrase searching).  So we have the following settings in our OPAC system options:
 
AVS performs adjacency search....NO
AVS performs OR search...............NO
 
We found this works perfectly well when searching the OPAC as a whole. But when you restrict searches to a scope which is a subset of the whole it reverts back to an adjacency or phrase search which is not what we want.
For example:
 
1a. A keyword search on  work women in our Entire collection (Staff) gives 523 hits.
1b. A keyword search on work and women Entire collection (Staff)  also gives 523 hits.
 
This is working fine  - 1a and 1b give the same result with 'and' working as a default operator in 1a. 
 
However a search in a subset of our entire collection (Warwick Theses) gives:
 
2a. A keyword search on  work women in our Theses collection gives 1 hit.
2b. A keyword search on work and women in our Theses collection gives 11 hits.
 
So now the two searches are not giving the same result. Search 2a has reverted back to an adjacency or phrase search giving one hit for the title: 'Seeing through state social work : women social workers' experiences in statutory settings' where the words work and women happen to be adjacent.
 
I discussed this problem with University of Miami Library and they agree that the very same problem exists in their OPAC.  Both U. of Warwick and U. of Miami have reported this to the Help Desk.
 
Could other Phase 3 libraries that have set their Keyword searching to operate with 'and' default between words check whether this is a problem on their systems? 
 
To see the problem in a scope you need to search a phrase where the words exist as a phrase in some records and separately in other records. I have used phrases such as glass ceramics, data energy, chemistry analytical.
 
Regards,
Graeme

 
 
Graeme Leng-Ward
Technical Services
University of Warwick Library
Coventry, U.K.
Tel: (024) 76 528138
Email: g.leng-ward@xxxxxxxxxx 
Opac: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk



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