AY Accession Year

(a limit field)

(1999 or 99) in ay

91 in ay

ay=91

The AY field indicates the year in which the record was added to the database. Records added to the database from September, 1999 forward contain the complete four-digit year; records added prior to that date contain only the last two digits of the year. Since records added to the database in 1999 can have either a two- or four-digit accession year, include both formats in your search for comprehensive results. For example, (1999 or 99) in ay retrieves records with either accession year format.

The accession year also appears at the beginning of the Accession Number (AN) field. You can search for a single year or a range of years. In addition to in and =, you may use the following operators with the AY field:

< less than,

such as ay<99

> greater than,

such as ay>91

<= less than or equal to,

such as ay<=89

>= greater than or equal to,

such as ay>=2000

- within a range,

such as ay=90-92

Browsing Accession Years

As an alternative to searching with the field label, you can browse years and search for them directly from the Accession Year Field-Specific Index. This field-specific index contains only years drawn from the AY field, therefore, your search will always yield results. Search results display in the AY field.