OLLI Study Group Catalog Search

How to Search the Catalog

The basics

Fill in as many or as few fields as you like, then press Search (or the Enter key). Every field you fill in must match — the fields combine with AND. Matching ignores capitalization unless you check the case box, and matches partial words: Thurs finds every Thursday group; 202 in Year finds every catalog since 2020. Clear empties everything and starts over.

Checking several boxes in Location, Topic, or Media

In the Term, Location, Topic, and Media lists, check any number of boxes; a study group matches if it fits any checked box. Checking Topic HIS and CE finds 618 study groups that are either history or current events. Combine lists and fields freely: Topic HIS or CE, and Location Evanston or Virtual, matches 333 groups.

Combining words inside one text field

Type OR, AND, or NOT in CAPITAL letters between words (the symbols | & ! are shortcuts for the same thing). All examples below search the Description field and show real counts from this catalog:

That last pair is the key idea: capitalized operator words are instructions; lowercase ones are ordinary words searched literally, so titles like war and peace or pride and prejudice work naturally.

Worked example

Topic HIS + Location Evanston + Year 2026 + Term Summer → exactly 2 study groups, both Thursday mornings: one on the current Supreme Court term, one on the legacy of slavery in America.

Working with results

The count above the table always shows the full number of matches (the table displays up to 500 rows — narrow the search to see the rest). Words you searched for are highlighted in yellow. Long Descriptions are shortened: click one to read it all, click again to shorten. Click any column heading to sort; click again to reverse. The page opens showing the newest catalog — clear or change the Year and Term fields to reach all years back to 2016. The Year box takes the same OR/AND/NOT logic as any text field: 2016 OR 2017 finds two years at once.