Searching the 2,100 publicly-available ebooks from the University of Virginia's Etext Center
David Seaman.
University of Virginia Electronic Text Center
Simple Searches
From the University of Virginia's Ebook Library page (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/), click the search link.
Searching for a Word
To search for a word or phrase in the whole database, enter a word or phrase in the search line, and click on the Submit Query button. For example, if you search for counterfeit within All ebooks the search engine retrieves 173 works, ranked by number of occurances within each work.
This includes all the words in the database beginning with "counterfeit": e.g. counterfeiters, counterfeiting, etc. If you add a space after the end of the word you will get the precise word form counterfeit as well as hyphenated formations of the word.
Phrase Searching
The instructions for searching for a phrase are identical to those above except that you type in a phrase instead of a single word. Try counterfeit money instead of counterfeit. The search engine retrieves 8 works where the phrase occurs.
Compound Searches
Compound searching allows you to search for two words (or phrases) within a specified range of one another.
Click on the link at the bottom of the main search page. To perform the search you need to enter the first word (or phrase), and then the second, in the spaces provided.
By default, the search is performed "within 40 characters," but this proximity value can be reset to 80 or 120 characters. A larger proximity value usually brings in more results, but also increases your chances of retrieving items that are proximate but not conceptually related.
So, if you enter counterfeit on the first search line and coin on the second, you will get the times that the words "counterfeit" and "coin" appear within 40 characters of each other--in this case, 10 works. The same search with the proximity distance set to 120 characters yields 12 matches.
Other Compound Search possibilities are Followed By, Not Near, and Not Followed by.
Constraining Searches
All ebooks is the default category for both simple and compound searches, but you can choose to constrain your search to other categories, including by subject or verse lines or dramatic speeches.
Word, phrase, and proximity searches can all be performed on these
specific parts of the database. Rather than leaving the default All
ebooks category in place, reset it to one of the subcategories,
such as Speeches in Drama or Literature in
Translation:
Search for word or phrase:
wilderness______________________________________
within [Subject: African American____________________]
"wilderness" within Subject: African American: 14 works
Search for word or phrase:
cultivate__________________________________________
within [Subject: Women Writers____________]
"Cultivate" within Women Writers: 51 matches
Viewing the Results
Results are groups by work, prioritized by number of occurances within each work. When you select a work that you would like to veiw, a more detailed list of occurances within that work appears. Further selecting an occurance, provides greater context to the instance as well as the option of downloading the ebook or viewing a web-version of the text.