Searching in HOLLIS

 

HOLLIS is Harvard Library's main search tool. It searches the Harvard Library catalog and billions of citations from external sources. You can use HOLLIS to find books, articles, media, and more. 

To learn how to search HOLLIS, visit the HOLLIS User Guide.

Effective Searching 

Use the search operators below to create more precise and complex searches. For more tips, visit Using Search Operators.

     AND
  • Used to narrow your search
  • All terms connected must be present in the result
 e.g., cities AND sustainability
OR
  • Used to broaden your search
  • Either of the terms can be present in your results 
 e.g., housing OR affordable housing
NOT
  • Used to exclude terms in your search
  • Ignoring terms that may be typically present in your search
 e.g., Cambridge NOT Massachusetts
" "
  • Searches for your terms as an exact phrase
 e.g., the book title: "Diversity of Urban Inclusivity"
*
  • Broadens your search
  • Searches for multiple variants of a word (singular/plural/conjugations)

e.g., urban* (results will include urban, urbanism, urbanization, etc.)

Using Filters

Use filters to narrow your search results! You can filter your search to show results with a specific date range of the publication, resource type, location of library collection, subject, author/creator, language, form/genre, and more. For more tips, visit Filter My Results. 

Access Options

In HOLLIS, there are several ways to access materials: