• b) Simple search
• c) Advanced search

Searching criteria

Examples

1. Example 1  (Search by one field) 
2. Example 2  (Search by two or more fields)
3. Example 3  (Using the indexes)  
4. Example 4  (Search a range of years)  
5. Example 5  (Exact match search)  
6. Example 6  (Searching terms with special characters, i.e. L'Aquila, D'Agostino, O'Neil)
    

Select one of the topics on the left

Basic features

The system provides on-line access to the ICCROM Library information resources stored in the form of a Micro-CDS/ISIS database. The browser window contains two frames:

• in the left frame you have a "menu window" where you have various options available to you during your work with the database;
• the right frame is used for the dialog with you.

When you start the session, the right-hand side frame contains a "welcome" page for the ICCROM Library database, where a number of links in a table direct you to the browse and search screens. Depending on what you are looking for, you can use the most relevant tool to reach the appropriate information. There are two possible options:

1. simple search
2. advanced search

These consist in building queries, so one can specify terms and use the logical operators AND, OR, NOT. Although it is not as simple as browsing, it is not too difficult. Actually it can be used by anyone with just a little experience. The system provides dictionary lists of terms, so instead of a blind trial and error the user can pick terms from the list and add it to a given search field.

Simple search

On selecting a database the search screen will appear, consisting one searching field, where you can specify your query. You can enter a number of terms you expect to see in the records you are looking for. The field is associated to a LIST button, which provides an index of all terms you can search. It is also accompanied by the AND/OR combo box, which can be used to specify the logical operator between terms within the field.

The field, is preceded by the inter-field Boolean operation (AND/OR/NOT) - as shown below.

Advanced search

Filling criteria fields
Operators between terms within a field
Operators between criteria fields
Optional selections and function buttons

On selecting a database the search screen will appear, consisting of several searching criteria fields, where you can specify your query. To each field you can enter a number of terms you expect to see in the records you are looking for. Most of the fields have an associated LIST button, which provides an index for the field (all possible values of the field). Each field is accompanied by the AND/OR combo box, which can be used to specify the logical operator between terms within the field.

All the fields, except for the first one, are preceded by the inter-field Boolean operation (AND/OR/NOT) - as shown below.

Filling criteria fields

In the criterion field you can enter some words separated by a semicolon (;). 
 

If you know what to enter in the field, just fill it in. If, however, you are not sure which terms might be used in the database, use the LIST button. 
If you press the List button next to an empty criteria field, the system will display the first 20 terms from the dictionary list for the field in alphabetical order. If you enter the initial letter/s of a term or its stem, the system will display the list starting from the stem (or the next nearest one). Now you can select a number of terms from the displayed dictionary:

• when the term you want appears, click on it (it will become highlighted)
• if you see another term you need, add it to your selection by simultaneously pressing the CTRL key and clicking on the selected term.
• when the terms from the list are selected you can add them to your criteria field by pressing the Select button.
• when the search screen comes back it will have the selected values in the given field. Now you can edit the field, perhaps removing the starting letters, which were used in order to access the dictionary from a given word. 

If you do not make any selection from the list you can use the buttons PgDn, PgUp, Return. PgDn button will give you the next 20 terms from the dictionary in the List; the PgUp button will go back to the previous 20 terms. The Return button will take you back to the search screen. 
Note: If you decide not to Select any term from the List, instead of using the Return button it is quicker to use the Back button from the Netscape or Explorer browser tool bar to go back to the search screen. Below an example of the selection list is shown.

Example 3 illustrates use of the LIST button.
 
 

Operators between terms within a field

The terms in one search criteria field may be OR or AND, depending on the choice made in the AND/OR combo box. So, if one wants to find documents with a title containing the terms  "museum" and "Madrid", this can be specified as shown below:

(see also Example 1).
 
 

Operators between criteria fields

Between the subqueries specified in the criteria fields one can use the logical operators AND, OR or NOT. If a given criterion field has to be ANDed with the preceding subqueries, in the preceding inter-field Boolean AND/OR/NOT radio buttons we select the operator AND (see Example 2).
 
 

Optional selections and function buttons

• Clear button - The CLEAR button can be used to clear your input in the criteria fields. If you submit the search questionnaire to the server (the SEARCH button or the LIST button) the field contents becomes starting point for the CLEAR function, which means that the button clears only the input you have typed in since the last transfer of the questionnaire to/from the the ICCROM library server.

• Exact match of words box: - in the box you can mark the way of treating all the terms specified in the criteria fields. If the box is off, it means that each term is treated as a stem (in ISIS it corresponds to the $ mask, in the SQL databases it corresponds to the * mask operator).

• Sort combo box selection - an option for sorting the search result can be selected
• Search button - use this button when completed query formulation and all other selections on the questionnaire have been made.

If you make a search and would like to specify more than one term in a field, say, Keywords, you must:

1. Enter requested terms, separating them by a semicolon. If you do not know if the term exist in the database, you can use the LIST button (see Example 3).
2. Select an option AND as a term operator if you want to find records where both terms appear in the field;
3. or select the option OR if you want to find the record where at least one of the selected terms appears.

So, for the specification as below:
 

the system will interpret the query as a request for records having in the Keywords fields at least one of the values Poland OR Germany OR France.

If more than one field is used, they are connected by inter-field boolean operators (AND, OR or NOT). By default the fields are automatically connected with AND. We use AND if we want to narrow the query. If we want to expand/widen the query we can use the OR operator.

For instance, if we are interested in publications written by Brown and Smith (as coauthors)  in the years 1994-1996 we can specify the query:
 

The system will interpret the request as looking for records  published in 1994, 1995 or 1996, coauthored by Brown and Smith

To search by one or more keywords in a given field, you can either type them in manually, separating them by a semicolon (";"),  or choose them from the list which will appear after clicking on the LIST button. The terms will appear in alphabetical order starting from "A", unless you enter the first letter(s) of a desired keyword in a given field before clicking on the LIST button.

If, for example, you would like to see the corporate authors names starting from INST, you should write the string "inst" in the Corporate Author field:
 
 

and then press the list button. At this point you will receive a list of terms from the dictionary, starting with "INST" 
 

Only three terms will appear in the window, but the table is scrollable, up to 20 terms. If you wish to see the previous or subsequent group of 20 terms, click on the PgUp or PgDn buttons.

To select a term from the list, click on the term and then on the SELECT button.

To select more than one term within the group of 20 terms appearing on the screen, highlight the ones you want by pressing the Ctrl key while clicking on each term. When all the needed terms are highlighted, click on the SELECT button. This will bring you to the searching screen where the selected terms will have already been filled into the field.

Remember: if instead of pressing the SELECT button, you press one of the buttons PgUp, PgDn  or RETURN, you will lose your current selection made in the combo box.

Therefore, if you look for other terms by using the PgDn button, the terms previously highlighted will not appear in the search string.

If you want to make the selection from various parts of the dictionary of the same field, you can repeat the procedure as follows:

1. add the term you are searching at the beginning of the field (i.e. in front of the first term you have chosen beforehand);
2. press the LIST button;
3. make a selection of the new terms
4. press the SELECT button.  You will go back to the search screen.
5. press the SEARCH button.

N.B. Always remember to manually remove the first letters you have typed in appearing in the listed field before clicking on the Search button.

If you want all publications in the eighties:

1. Enter the year, without the last digit (ie 198).

So, the specification should be set as below:  

the system will interpret the query as a request for records having 198 in the Years. It will therefore find all 1980s publications.

1. If you are not sure about the exact match of a word, leave the box blank; for example : you do not know whether the author's name is BROWN or BROWNE or BROWNES - just write BROWN and you will get them all.
    
2. If you are sure that the name is BROWN, switch on the exact match box and you will get only those with the name BROWN
    

For the 1st example the specification should be set as below:
 

If you want to search for terms which contain special characters (e.g. quote, bracket, plus) you have to use double quotes outside the searching term, i.e. "D'Agostino"

So the specification should be set as below: