SOLL Digital Collections

Simple Search

The simple search box at the top of the SOLL Digital Collection home page searches for items across all SOLL's collections. If you choose a single collection from the main menu, the search default is to search only that collection.

A simple search looks for all terms entered in the search box in any order.

Example: A search for the phrase Oregon Constitution will look for items containing both "Oregon" and "constitution," whether or not the words appear together as a single phrase. 

To search for word variations, add an asterisk (*) to the end of the root.

Example: prosecut* will return results that include "prosecute", "prosecution", "prosecuted", "prosecutor" and so on.

The asterisk also works within the word. The asterisk wildcard doesn't work when used in place of the first letter of a word.

Example: wom*n retrieves both women and woman. 

New Search

Start a new search by typing the new term within the search box. To clear an Advanced Search, click the Clear button.

Refining Your Search

The left side menu allows search results to be narrowed down using database categories.

Example: Expand a search for prosecut* within the Chief Justice Orders (as shown above), to one or more collections, or narrow by subject, year, or type of order within the Chief Justice Orders collection.

If you have narrowed your search too far, go back a step by removing the last keyword used (in the image above where it says prosecut*, you would click the X to the right side of it).  

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search function allows you to select specific collections and build a more complex search query. (Tap the plus sign icon when using a mobile device.)

 

The system defaults to all collections. To limit a search to one or two collections, uncheck the boxes not needed, and save to continue. 

Advanced search allows four search types:

• All of the words--searches for all of the words in any order. However, it will only include results that have all of your search words contained in the document. For instance, if the search was "Oregon Revised Statutes," you would get results that had "Oregon" and "Revised" and "Statutes" all contained within a single document.
• Any of the words--Using this type, a search of "Oregon Revised Statutes" would get you results that had "Oregon" or "Revised" or "Statutes" but not necessarily all three contained within the document. 
• The exact phrase--this search type looks for the exact phrase in that exact order. It is similar to using quotation marks in other search engines. If you searched for the phrase "Washington county," it would exclude any results where Washington or county is used by itself. 
• None of the words --use this option to exclude a term. For instance, if you entered "Oregon courts" in the exact phrase search box and "appellate" in this search box, the results would contain all items containing "Oregon courts" that do not contain the word "appellate". 

Searching by Date

Use the drop-down list to specify between a date range, or to search after, before, or on a particular date. Entering a year (yyyy) is required to perform a search. You also can search by year and month, or by month and day and year.

Searching by Field

You can search All Fields, or you can choose a specific field in which to search using the drop-down menu. Here are the most common ways to search by field in SOLL's digital collection. 

Subject--Official case name, parties attached to a case, petitioners, state agency that a public records request is directed to

Description--Notes on an opinion, decision description on an Attorney General order, etc.

Creator--The Justice or Judge signing the opinion or the agency issuing an order (Judicial Department, Dept of Justice, or Governor's office)

Relation--Case number

Relation-Is Part of or Relation-Has Part of--Any additional case numbers associated with an opinion or brief

Description-Table of Contents--Case citation or cited authority

Browse Search

This allows you to see the items contained in a collection (please note: only the first 200 pages of results or 10,000 records are included in a browse, so an extremely large collection like the Briefs--Oregon Court of Appeals will not display in full in browse mode). You can then further narrow down by the categories in the left side menu.

Once you have selected a specific document, in the Item Description section at the bottom of the page; any of the words highlighted in blue will allow you to browse any other documents that contain those same subject terms. 

Downloading and Opening a Document

To open the full document: click the blue diagonal arrows on the top right image of the document as shown in the image above. 

To download a document: on the right side of the above image, click the blue down arrow just above the "search the record" box.

To share a document: The orange arrow located in the bottom right corner of the page (see above image) gives you the option of emailing the document, printing it, or posting it to social media.