On Fri, 30 Jul 2010, Sarah Weeks wrote:

> Long time lurker, first time poster.
> I have a little usability question I was hoping someone could give me advice
> on.
> I'm updating the databases page on our website and we'd like to add a search
> box that would search certain fields we have set up for our databases
> (title, vendor, etc...) so that even if someone doesn't remember the first
> word in the title, they can quickly find the database they're looking
> through without having to scroll through the whole A-Z list.
> My question is: if we add a search box to our main database page, how can we
> make it clear that it's for searching FOR a database and not IN a database?
> Some of the choices we've considered are:
> Seach for a database:
> Search this list:
> Don't remember the name of the database? Search here:
>
> I'm not feeling convinced by any of them. I'm afraid when people see a
> search box they're not going to bother reading the text but will just assume
> it's a federated search tool.
>
> Any advice?

If the issue is trying to keep the wording short so you don't clutter up 
the main page, consider putting a larger, more detailed message on the 
results page, such as :

 	Didn't find what you were looking for?
 	This searches the names of the databases, but doesn't search
 	within them.  ...

(yes, I know, it wastes their time, and CPU cycles on your machine, but 
it's an alternative if the issue's trying to make the website look pretty)

-Joe