Search in Sofia

Facets are characteristics unique to a group of items and make it possible to refine the search results obtained based on one or more characteristics. Facets appear to the left of the search results in Sofia.

1. Group This Search (Group Related Editions): allows all the editions of a work (1st, 2nd, 3rd editions) to be grouped together under a single record when they are held by the same library This option is useful when the most recent edition is already checked out.
2. Library: limits the search to collections in one of three library levels – home institution, Quebec academic libraries or international libraries.
3. Format: limits the search to pre-defined items – books, articles, videos, journals, audio recordings, etc. You may select different types of items.
4. Content Type: limits the search to certain types of content (scientific paper, open access publication).
5. Publication Year: limits the search to a specific date or range of dates.
6. Language: limits the search to a specific language (i.e.: English items only).
7. Topic: limits the search to a specific topic.
8. Author/Creator: limits the search to a specific author.
9. Databases: limits the search to specific sources of data.

For more information on facets, click here.

Search results may be sorted by relevance. One of Sofia’s unique features is to provide three types of relevance sorting:

1. Best match: priority is given to the number of times a word appears in the item. Items where the keyword appears most often come up first in the results list.
2. Recency: priority is given to the publication date of items. However, date is not the only indicator for this type of sorting. Do not confuse it with sorting by date (most recent).
3. Library: priority is given to items from the user’s library collection.  

Other sorting options with the discovery tool Sofia :

• Author (A-Z): search results are sorted by alphabetical order according to the author’s family name and given name.
• Date (Newest First): search results are sorted according to the publication date of the item (most recent to oldest).
• Date (Oldest First): search results are sorted according to the publication date of the item (oldest to the most recent).
• Most Widely Held: search results are sorted according to the number of international libraries that hold the item. The most held item is ranked first, and the least held is ranked last.
• Title (A-Z): search results are sorted by alphabetical order according to the first word of the title.