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What are the available options for advanced (i.e., multi-field) searches in Horizon? How can I construct one?
This is partially dependent on how your Horizon* install was setup. With the right know-how, your sys admin can create indexes for pretty much any MARC record field. For the most part, Horizon indexes are divided into two different kinds: Browse and Keyword. With a few exceptions, such as ISBN, there is no such thing as an "Exact" search. If you are wanting to search multiple indexes at a time, you have to use keyword searches. You can't combine browse searches together.
BASIC SEARCH (and options): There are a couple of different ways to do more advanced searches in Horizon. From your basic search, by pressing F2, you have access to all the browse, keyword, and exact indexes that have been setup in your search profile, which may not be all the indexes available (this is something your sys admin controls). From here you can search one field at a time. However, you can also add a "restriction" by clicking the "restrict" button. The restrictions are based on item, not bib, information and thus do not correspond to the MARC record. These are all setup by your sys admin but there may be some defaults. We have the ability to restricted to "checked in" status, specific collection codes, and locations.
Once you get your initial results, if you used a keyword index such as the "General Keyword" that returns titles, versus authority records, you'll also have the ability to "limit" your results further. This is done by clicking the "limit" box on the bottom of the results page. Limits can be tricky to use unless you understand the back-end cataloging. They are based on the MARC record so you must use MARC codes when appropriate. For example, if you wish to limit to English language titles, you need to put in the code "eng". Again, like everything else, the actual limit options you have are dependent on your sys admin. Also, limits and indexes in Horizon are really stupid. They only search for exactly what you ask them to. For instance, reading level is often put in as a range. However, when you search for reading level, if you enter 8, it'll only find items that have 8 in the reading field and ignore those that should include 8 such as if it's entered as 7-10. Limits can be used on top of each other so you could, for example, first limit to autobiographies and then limit further based on number of pages.
EXPERT SEARCH: The expert search is the easiest way to do multi-field searches. You get to it by opening the basic search and then clicking the "Command Mode" button on the top right. Scroll through your index options and then double click on the first index you want to use. It will appear down below in the search command section. Here's an example of how our author keyword search looks:
<authkw: >
enter your search term after the colon:
<authkw: john grisham>
(Horizon is case insensitive and keyword indexes don't care what order you put the terms in. HOWEVER, there is a bug in the 7.5+ version that will cause Horizon to report an error if you try to put a comma in the search term. This was not a problem when we were on 7.3.4.)
Arrow past the closing greater than sign and enter your Boolean term or click one of the operator buttons. Then double click the next index you want to use. For instance, my final query might look something like this:
<authkw: john grisham> NOT <subjkw: christmas>
Once you're finished creating it, hit the search button. At this point, you can limit the results further if desired.
MISC Notes:
Here are the keyword indexes we have in our install:
Here are the limit options we have:
There's a lot more detail that I could go into but hopefully this covers the basics of your question. If you or your Horizon sys admin want more information on setting up the indexes, I highly recommend subscribing to the Horizon-L listserv (I think you have to sign up on SirsiDynix's website).
*Just to clarify, when I say "Horizon" I mean the staff search side and when I say "HIP" (Horizon Information Portal) I mean the patron side.