POWER SEARCH!

The Foundation Directory Online has a new search option: Power Search! Now a patron can search FDO's four main databases at once: Grants, Grantmakers, Companies, and 990s. In addition, it searches news stories, RFPs, PubHub reports, and The Catalog of Nonprofit Literature. Pubhub is a collection of foundation-sponsored reports and the Catalog of Nonprofit Literature is the catalog of the Foundation Center's own libraries.

A phrase surrounded by quotation marks or a string of keywords can be entered into Power Search, for a more "Google-like" experience. "And" is implied between a series of words. Once a search is entered, options appear on the left to guide further searching. FDO now gives you options to narrow your results. I like the way numbers of hits are listed with each option. You can also search with results by putting a keyword in the search box at the top. if you change your mind about narrowing, simply uncheck the box on the left to go back to your old results.

Don't forget though, when you search the individual databases the default is still "or". For example, in Search Grantmakers if you want to find grantmakers who have a geographic focus of either Minnesota or the whole country, you view the index and click on "Minnesota", then "National". "Or" will be added automatically. If you want an "and" search, you have to type in "and".