Using the Refine Panel to search versus the search bar

Introduction

Using the RCDC Refine Filter

• What is RCDC? 

Performing a custom field search query

Summary of queries

Introduction

iSearch has a multitude of search functionalities, some being more useful for specific use cases compared to others. You can also arrive at the same result using two different search strategies. Generally, the search bar is used for keyword searches, meaning that if you type a keyword into the search bar, it will find mentions of that keyword in any of the selected search fields. In contrast, if you use the Refine Filters Panel to perform or add to a search, you will be using assigned buckets of these fields. Below, we will walk through an example comparing the different ways to search and the results you would obtain.

Using the Refine Filters Panel: RCDC "Prevention" category

These are grant records (specifically awards) assigned the official RCDC category "Prevention". After you have selected this in the Refine Filters Panel, it will become a breadcrumb under the search bar. This approach does not search for the keyword "prevention" across categories, although there is likely to be overlap with records that have prevention as a keyword in their content. Additionally, since grant records can have multiple categories assigned, you may see additional prevention‑related categories appear in your results.

It is important to be aware that RCDC categorizes prospectively from the time (fiscal year (FY)) the category is created and does not assign categories retrospectively. This means that grant records created before an RCDC category was established will not be captured in the official category. You can see this by opening the FY refine option. If your analysis requires you to go back in time further than when the RCDC category was created, you may want to use keywords to develop your portfolio. Learn more about using the Refine Filters Panel.

Total results using this strategy to find grant records within the official "Prevention" RCDC category sum to 253,215. (as of 5/27/2026)

Fiscal year (FY) review of when category was developed

All RCDC categories with "prevention"

Performing a custom field search query

You can also use a custom field to query RCDC categories. This lets you find records either in one official RCDC category or in any category whose name includes a specific term.

You will need to decide if you want to capture only the official category or any category that contains this term. This will determine the custom field you need to use. See all the grant record custom fields. 

You can use the exact custom field to replicate capturing the official RCDC category (rcdcCategoriesExact:Prevention) or use the custom field without exact (rcdcCategories:Prevention), depending on what you need to capture. The latter performs a broad synonym search and therefore returns any record with "prevention" in the category name. See the summary table below for comparison of search strategies.

Summary of queries

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