diff --git a/README.rdoc b/README.rdoc
index cb37720..6687c7a 100644
--- a/README.rdoc
+++ b/README.rdoc
@@ -89,6 +89,10 @@ In your controller:
     respond_with @products
   end
 
+If you are getting strange results (for instance, iTotalRecords and iTotalDisplayRecords both equal 0, or entirely the wrong collection is used), you might want to specify which collection to use:
+
+  respond_with @products, :locals => {:collection => @products}
+
 In your search view:
 
   @products.each do |product|
diff --git a/app/views/layouts/application.datatables.jsonify b/app/views/layouts/application.datatables.jsonify
index 39cfc71..78ea076 100644
--- a/app/views/layouts/application.datatables.jsonify
+++ b/app/views/layouts/application.datatables.jsonify
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
 total_entries = nil
 current_page_entries = 0
+collection ||= nil
 
 instance_variables.each do |vn|
   v = instance_variable_get(vn)
+  
+  # if a collection variable was specified, use it only
+  next if collection && collection != v
+  
   next if v.class.name.nil?
   if v.class.name.start_with?("MetaSearch::Searches") and v.respond_to?('size')
     current_page_entries = v.size