The operators described below, as available on the Standard and Advanced tabs of the Search data source dialog, are for use in a catalogue that is linked to an authority database through the field you are searching on or in an authority database or in some other hierarchical database. The authority databases we are talking about are the kind in which terms can be defined hierarchically, via broader and narrower terms: this will often mean the Thesaurus or Persons and institutions or the Archive catalogue for example.
You typically either search a linked field (linked to a hierarchical database) or the central field in an internal link definition (if the current database is hierarchical). In the Archive catalogue for example, records are linked to parent and/or child records through their object numbers, so in an archive you can search hierarchically on the object_number field.

Narrower

When you are searching using narrower, you search on all narrower terms of the search key (without the search key itself), that may have been defined for it. So on the title field you cannot search with narrower, but you can on e.g. keyword.contents (library), object_name (museum), object_number (archive), content.subject (archive), or term (Thesaurus). For example:

object_name narrower box

This would retrieve all records with any of the narrower terms of 'box' as the object name, for instance:

Broader

When you are searching using broader (previously called parents), you search on all broader terms of the search key (without the search key itself), that may have been defined for it. On the title field, on the other hand, you cannot search with broader, but you can on e.g. keyword.contents (library), object_name (museum), object_number (archive), content.subject (archive), or term (Thesaurus). For example:

object_name broader "pencil box"

In this example, you would retrieve all records with object names Container or Box.

Generic

When you are searching using generic, you search on the search key and all narrower terms underneath it, down to the lowest level, that may have been defined for it. So on the title field you cannot search with generic, but you can on e.g. keyword.contents (library), object_name (museum), object_number (archive), content.subject (archive), or term (Thesaurus). For example:

object_name generic box

In this example all records will be retrieved in which one or more of the above object names occur, except for Container.

Hierarchical

With the hierarchical operator you can search a linked location field (e.g. current_location.name) on a single location level, a partial hierarchy or a complete hierarchy and you can use an * to truncate each level wholly or partially, while levels must be separated by forward slashes. End the string without forward slash or asterisk to search on the last level (within at least the indicated hierarchy) and all its sub levels, end the string with a forward slash to search (within at least the indicated hierarchy) on the last level only (not its sub levels) or end the string with a forward slash followed by an asterisk to search on the sub levels of the last level only (within at least the indicated hierarchy). Examples of search keys:

A full hierarchical search statement would look something like:

current_location.name hierarchical "Building A/Floor 1/Vertical 2"

or

current_location.name hierarchical "Vertical 1/Shelf*"

See the Hierarchical searching topic for more information about this functionality.

Related

When you are searching using related, you search on the term itself and all related terms on the same level, as specified in the Related term entry field  (in the Thesaurus). So on the title field you cannot search with related, but you can on e.g. keyword.contents (library), object_name (museum), content.subject (archive), or term (Thesaurus). For example:

object_name related "orange juice"

In this example all records will be retrieved with object names which are related to the term ‘orange juice’, for example: apple juice or pineapple juice, and orange juice itself.

Equivalent

When you are searching using equivalent, you search on the term or name itself and all its equivalent terms or names on the same level, as specified in the Equivalent term entry field (in the Thesaurus or Persons and institutions). So on the title field you cannot search with equivalent, but you can on e.g. keyword.contents (library), object_name (museum), content.subject (archive), author.name (library) or term (Thesaurus). For example:

object_name equivalent "juice"

In this example all records will be retrieved with object names which are equivalent to the term ‘juice’, sap for example, and juice itself.

Pseudonym

When you are searching using pseudonym, you search on the proper name and all its pseudonyms as specified in the Pseudonym entry field (in Persons and institutions), provided these names have the same domain (name type) as the linked field you are searching. So on the title field you cannot search with pseudonym, but you can on e.g. author.name (library), publisher (library) or creator (museum). It doesn't matter if the name you enter is a proper name or pseudonym and it also doesn't matter if the search key actually does appear in records for the search to succeed on the other names in the pseudonym relation. For example:

author.name pseudonym "Kopland, Rutger"

In this example all records will be retrieved in which the author name is either the name itself or the proper name or any pseudonym of the search key.

Phonetic (sounds like)

With phonetic searching - you cannot literally use sounds like - words can be found which sound the same as the word you are searching for, even when your search key is spelled the wrong way. This applies especially to words in the English language. The operator can only be used when searching term or free text indexes, but only yields phonetic results if the searched index has been set up for phonetic searching properly: by default, no indexes have been set up this way.