Introduction

This is a facile, short-hand summary of the entire search process. It is intended to be no more than a suggested outline, as we all find our own ways to what works best for us.

Reference Interview

• This should be objective, using non-judgemental, non-leading language. How many times have you heard that before?
• Learn all the relevant subject concepts. This may take a bit of work to get all the relevant information out of the client.
• Narrow the search concepts to the precise information need.

State the Information Question

• If possible, the information need should be stated as a simple question or declarative sentence.
• For example: "What are the major cause(s) of eye infections in domesticated iguanas?"

Selecting the Most Appropriate Databases

• Use DIALINDEX (File 411) to find out in which databases the search terms are most common.
• Use DIALOG Finder files to target databases if company names (File 416), journal titles (File 414), or product codes (File 413) are important to the search.
• Use the DIALOG Catalog to assess the focus of possible databases.

Planning the Search

• Identifying the major concepts of the information question.
• Looking at possible synonyms. (Don't forget the Library of Congress Subject Headings - LCSH.)
• Look at word variants, using wild cards / truncation to account for them.
• Look at term variants or alternative spellings through the use of the Expand command, which will produce an alphabetical list of terms before, after, and beginning with the term that you entered.
• Use Booleans (logical connectors) to link concepts.
• Use Proximity Connectors (w, n) to search for phrases as well as words that are likely to be in close proximity to each other.
• Use not to exclude non-relevant concepts.

Evaluating the Search (Search Analysis)

• Often a search fails, even for the most skilled and experienced professional searcher.
• What you need to do is analyze what went wrong, learn from it, and create an improved search statement.

Introduction

• Parts of this are redundant, but I want to emphasize certain points several times.
• When searching any database, but particularly Dialog because of the potentially high costs, you should carefully plan your search strategy.
• This involves several steps:
  • Determining your information need.
  • Stating the search topic.
  • Expanding the terms.
  • Developing the search statement/algorithm/strategy.
  • Selecting the Database.
• The Worksheet is a tool intended to facilitate this process.

Information Need

• This typically involves a reference interview, whether formal or informal.
• It is vital to:
  • Clarify what exactly your customer wants.
  • Determine what are the core and other relevant terms.
  • Find out what time frame is desired:
    • In the content.
    • For delivery of the results.
  • Find out what the budget (ie., limit) is for doing the searching if it is to be paid by the customer or come from another account.

State the Topic

• Try stating the problem in different ways.
• The purpose for doing so is to get different perspectives on the
• As a Question:
  • What is the relationship between nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition and good grades?
• As a Statement:
  • Nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition may have a positive impact on academic performance.

Concept Chart

• Use a chart like this to organize your search for maximum effectiveness in terms of recall and precision. The Search Worksheet contains one example. Below are two examples of Concept Charts. Find a way of organizing a search that best fits your style.
• Remember that you need to balance two issues in the creation of your search:
  • Precision - You design your search to get specifically what you need and nothing else. This is the usual strategy when you need a very particular piece of information such as the name of the person who invented the hula hoop, a list of Nokia cell phone models, the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first vice president, and so forth.
  • Recall - You design your search to be sure to gather all information related to your information need. This is particularly important when:
    • You are trying to get a general perspective on a subject such as the growth strategies of a company.
    • You need to get all the relevant information for some critical issue such as the clinical trials and leading-edge research on a particular form of cancer.

Steps in Using the Concept Chart A Below

1. Enter what you think is the best search term for the first concept you are concerned with under Concept A.
2. Enter synonyms or similar terms for that concept in the same column but below "or (add related terms)."
3. Do the same for each additional concept (Concepts B, C, etc.) in their respective columns.
4. You may also want to limit your search results in several ways.
   • Examples:
     • Limiting the search to English.
     • Limiting it to recent publications. (Important, if you are looking at medical information.)
     • Excluding references to concepts that use similar terms, such as excluding "law schools" if you are looking for information on paralegal programs
     • Excluding whatever else you feel like excluding.

   Concept A		Concept B		Concept C
   music	and	popular?	and	new york
   or (add related terms)
   concerts		attendance		manhattan
   bands		crowds		new york city
   musicians				big apple
   not (add limits)
   Pavarotti
   any date before 1998
   lawrence welk

Steps in Using the Concept Chart B Below

1. Enter what you think is the best search term for the first concept you are concerned with under Concept A.
2. Enter synonyms or similar terms for that concept in the same column but below "or (add related terms)."
3. Do the same for each additional concept (Concepts B, C, D) in their respective columns.
4. You may also want to limit your search results in several ways.
   • Examples:
     • Limiting the search to a certain language, typically English.
     • Limiting it to a recent period.
     • Excluding references to concepts that use similar terms.
     • Excluding whatever you feel like excluding.

   Concept A	and or not w, n	Concept B	and or not w, n	Concept C or Limits	and or not w, n	Concept D or Limits
   music		most popular		new york
   						not before 1996
   concerts		highest attendance		manhattan		articles in english
   bands		largest crowds		new york city
   musicians				big apple

Plan Search Algorithms/Statements/Strategies

• It is preferable to do your search in multiple statements isolating different subject components of your search.
• For example:
  • In a search on the most popular music being performed in New York City, you might creat the following statements:
    • ss music or bands or concerts
    • ss perform? or present?
    • ss new(w)york or (new(w)york)(2n)city or manhattan
    • ss (most or more)(2w)popular or (high? or greatest)(w)attendance
  • These will create multiple sets of results that you can successively combine in various ways using Booleans, proximity, and other operators.

Select the appropriate database to search.

1. Look at whatever information you may have on databases that are logically relevant to the search problem.
   • This may include:
     • Database utility catalog of databases
       • In Dialog, looking at the OneSearch categories is a good place to start.
     • Bluesheets
     • Database-specific manuals
     • Recommendations by information professionals in professional journals.
     • Recommendations in online forums.
     • Doing a DialIndex (File 411) search to identify databases with the greatest number of occurrences of the search terms/phrases that you are using.
2. Select the databases for the specific search problem.

Logon

Execute Your Search Strategy / Expression / Algorithm

Introduction

This is also a step-by-step look at the entire process of searching for records on Dialog, but this time we will use DialogClassic illustrated by a specific example problem. Again, I am going over some of the same steps, but this time we are looking at an example problem.

Resource

• Intro to DialogClassic - http://training.dialog.com/sem_info/courses/pdf_sem/intro_dialogclassic.pdf

Important: Remember Pause, Logout, Logout Hold, Save Temp

• pause - Generally, you do not want to use this in DialogWeb because of its effect on the display. If you are accessing Dialog via Telnet, do this if you expect it will take you no more than about 30 seconds to revise your search or review some records.
• logout - In any version of Dialog, use this to exit Dialog if it is going to take you more than about a minute to revise your search or review some records
• logout hold - This command will hold your results for up to 30 minutes if you have exit Dialog to do some serious thinking about your search but expect to come back to it.
• save temp - Do this if you want to save a search for up to 7 days.
  • Save it as a 1-6 letter name that you should note down.
  • The search an be re-executed and reviewed later with the exs command.

Information Need: Example

• You are (or are helping) a college student is writing a paper about how nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition have the potential to improve academic performance.
• You want research or other narrative content that came out in the last ten or so years.

State the Topic

• Try stating the problem in different ways.
• The purpose for doing so is to get different perspectives on the
• As a Question:
  • What is the relationship between nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition and good grades? We need up-to-date information from the last two or three years.
• As a Statement:
  • Nutrition, rest, exercise, and emotional condition may have a positive impact on academic performance.

Using the Concept Chart

• Remember, use a chart like this to organize your search for maximum effectiveness in terms of recall and precision. The Search Worksheet is one example. Find a way of organizing a search that best fits your style.
• Look how the concepts in the problem are identified, divided up, and similar or related terms added.

Plan the Search Strategy

This series of searches are based on the individual sets (A, B, and C) of concepts are were divided through the use of the Concept Chart. Steps (individual searches) 1-3 reflect the three sets of concepts identified above. Each one provides a broad recall of related subjects.

Step 5 starts the process of targeting the search, the process of increasing the precision of the search and reducing the size of the result, specifically the number of returned records.

Step 6 increases the precision of the search by adding two limits, specifically limiting the results to the English language and records published during or after 2003.

1. ss student? and (college or university)

2. ss nutrition or diet or eating

3. ss grades or (academic(w)performance) or GPA

4. Combine the resulting sets.

5. s s4 and s8 and s14

Note: When you combine sets only use the Select ( s ) command, NOT Select Steps ( ss ).

6. s s15/eng and py>=2003

Select the appropriate database to search.

1. Remember that you have a variety of tools to target your search. In this case, because of the nature of the subject, we will do a manual selection of databases based on a review of the Dialog database catalog.
2. For the example problem, we will select the following Dialog databases:
   • ERIC (File 1) - because of its focus on education.
   • PsychInfo (File 11) - because of its focus on psychological issues.
   • HEALTH (OneSearch category) - because it covers a wide range of health issues and databases related to the subject of our search.

Connect to DialogClassic

Go to the URL: http://www.dialogclassic.com

Logon

Enter your unique ID number and password and click on "Go."

 

DialogClassic Welcome Screen

This is the initial screen that you see for searching DialogClassic. As you can see, it is primarily text-based just like the telnet-access product, but, at the bottom of the page, you have the Command entry box and buttons more made possible by Web technologies.

Begin a DialIndex Search to find candidate databases

Remember that this is ONLY intended to find candidate databases, NOT to find the desired records themselves.

Enter the following in the Command entry field. Follow all commands by (in DialogClassic) clicking on the button. In the text-based interface, you just hit a return.

 

• b 411
  • Here you are beginning ( "b" ) the DialIndex database (#411).
• sf 1, 11, health
  • You now set the files ( "sf" ) that you are going to searching..
• s student? and (nutrition or diet) and (grades or academic()performance or gpa) -
  • Again, this is intended to be a broad search to find the databases that contain the most records with the terms that you have entered. Note that ONLY the Select (" s ") search command (a single "s") is used.
• rf
  • This ranks ( "rf") the databases (aka "files") by the numer of occurrences of the terms from the most to the least.

Select the Files to Search

You select from the databases which ones to search. This is based on a combination of the number of occurrences of the terms in the databases plus the subject focus of the databases.

Enter the following in the Command entry field to begin ( "b" ) in the ranked databases that you want to search.

• b n1-n8,n12,n13

Execute Your Search Strategy / Expression / Algorithm

Now, you search on the different sets of concepts and combine the results of your searches.

1. ss student? and (college or university)

2. ss nutrition or diet or eating

3. ss grades or (academic(w)performance) or GPA

4. Combine the resulting sets.

5. s s4 and s8 and s14

Note: When you combine sets only use the Select ( s ) command, NOT Select Steps ( ss ).

6. s s15/eng and py>=2003

Display the Results

• You have two choices here.
  • Displaying and reading the records online.
    • Example:
      • d s17/3/1-20 - "s17"
      • Note that the search is being displayed in the /3/ format, which generally incurs no or little charges.
  • Displaying and capturing the records continuously for reading offline. (Note: To learn how to do this, see the Dialog Index Web page and click on "Capturing Records with Telnet.")
    • Example:
      • t s17/3/1-20 - "s5" being the results of s s4/eng and py>=1980

Pause, Logout, Logout Hold, Save Temp

It is very important for you to contain the costs of your search in Dialog. I'll be talking more about this, but the following are some of the most important tools for you to use to do so.

• pause - Do this if you expect it will take you no more than about a minute to review the citations.
• logout - Use this to exit Dialog if it is going to take you more than about a minute to review the citations.
• logout hold - This command will hold your results for up to 30 minutes if you have exit Dialog to do some serious thinking about your search but expect to come back to it.
• save temp - Do this if you want to save a search for up to 7 days.
  • Save it as a 1-6 letter name that you should note down.
  • The search an be re-executed and reviewed later with the exs command.

Analyze the Results

• Do the returned records provide the desired information?
• If not, review your search in terms of terms, functions, operators, and way that language structure and words are likely to be used for the subject you are trying to find information on.
• To look at your previous searches, type "ds" in the Command field at the bottom of the screen, then click on .

Modify Your Search Strategy / Expression / Algorithm

• Narrow or broaden the search as needed.
• Refine the search terms or select synonymous or new ones.

Enter Your Revised Search Strategy / Expression / Algorithm

Display the Results

• Select the ones you want to view full-text.
• Display and review the likely candiates, then download the relevant ones.

Logout

• Look at the screen for the cost of the search
• Multiply it by 15 times to get a rough idea of the true cost of your Dialog search.

Scope

• Selecting the appropriate database(s) to search requires considerable thought because of the:
  • Number and variety of databases that Dialog offers.
  • Sometimes narrow focus of many of the databases.
  • High potential costs of searching one or more databases.
• There are, though, a number of resources that facilitate database selection.
• NOTE: Students in the SLIS program do not have access to all Dialog databases. A list of which ones are available to us is at: slisweb.sjsu.edu/proj/passwords/DialogAccessList.xls. This is an Excel spreadsheet (.xls).

Resources for selecting databases

• Dialog Database Catalog
  • This used to be available in print, but you can get the entire contents online.
  • The catalog provides basic database descriptions including the date range of
  • Look at the OneSearch categories to find the names of related databases.
  • This is available at: http://support.dialog.com/publications/dbcat/
• Bluesheets
  • These provide most of the information that you need to know about the general nature of a database plus the fields that can be searched, other search functions, and costs.
  • They are available at: http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/
• Database Manuals and Thesauri
  • Unfortunately, the most extensive manuals and thesauri must be obtained from the database publishers, though some are online.
  • Prices range from free to $50 or more.
• Recommendations
  • From information professionals in professional journals and online forums.
  • From experts in the subject about which you are seeking information.
  • From your fellow students.
• DialIndex (File 411) (in DialogClassic or via Telnet)
  • In a way, the DialIndex search may be your most useful tool for finding which databases to search.
  • DialIndex is a union index of the contents of all indexes for all of the databases.
  • It enables you to find out where the most frequent occurrences of selected words or phrases occur in selected or all available Dialog databases.
• Databases Search (in DialogWeb)
  • This is similar to the DialIndex search.
  • It enables you to, "Browse to find the best databases for your topic—at no charge."

1	ERIC
2	INSPEC (1969-present)
3	INSPEC (1969-1982)
4	INSPEC (1983-present)
5	BIOSIS Previews® (1969-present)
6	NTIS - National Technical Information Service
7	Social SciSearch®
8	Ei Compendex®
9	Business & Industry™
10	AGRICOLA
11	PsycINFO® Psychological Abstracts
13	Business & Management Practices™ (BAMP™)
14	ISMEC: Mechanical Engineering Abstracts
16	Gale Group PROMT® (1990-present)
18	Gale Group F&S Index™
20	Dialog Global Reporter
21	NCJRS
22	Employee Benefits Infosource™
25	Weldasearch®
26	Foundation Directory
27	Foundation Grants Index
28	Oceanic Abstracts
29	Meteorological and Geoastrophysical Abstracts
30	Asia-Pacific
31	World Surface Coatings Abstracts™
32	METADEX®: Metals Science
33	Aluminum Industry Abstracts
34	SciSearch®: a Cited Reference Science Database 1990+
36	Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
37	Sociological Abstracts
38	America: History and Life
39	Historical Abstracts
40	Enviroline®
41	Pollution Abstracts
47	Gale Group Magazine Database™
48	SPORTDiscus
49	PAIS International
50	CAB Abstracts
51	Food Science and Technology Abstracts
52	TSCA Chemical Substances Inventory
53	Foodline®: Food Science and Technology
54	Foodline®: International Food Market Data
55	BIOSIS Previews® (1993-present)
56	ARTbibliographies Modern
58	GeoArchive
59	Foodline®: Current Food Legislation
61	LISA (Library & Information Science Abstracts)
62	SPIN®
63	Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS)
65	Inside Conferences

66	GPO Monthly Catalog
67	World Textiles™
68	Environmental Bibliography
69	Energyline®
70	SEDBASE: Side Effects of Drugs (1996 Version)
71	Elsevier BIOBASE
72	EMBASE® (1993-present)
73	EMBASE® (1974-present)
74	International Pharmaceutical Abstracts
75	Gale Group Management Contents®
76	Life Sciences Collection
77	Conference Papers Index
79	Foods Adlibra™
80	Gale Group Aerospace/Defense Markets & Technology®
85	Grants
86	Mental Health Abstracts
88	Gale Group Business A.R.T.S.(SM)
89	GeoRef
91	Manual, Alternative and Natural Therapy™ (MANTIS™)
92	IHS International Standards and Specifications
93	TableBase™
94	JICST-EPlus - Japanese Science & Technology
95	TEME - Technology & Management
96	FLUIDEX (Fluid Engineering Abstracts)
98	General Science Abstracts/Fulltext
99	Wilson Applied Science & Technology Abstracts
101	Disclosure®
103	Energy Science and Technology
105	AESIS (Australia's Geoscience, Minerals, and Petroleum Database)
108	Aerospace Database
109	Nuclear Science Abstracts
110	Wasteinfo
111	Gale Group National Newspaper Index™
112	UBM Industry News™
114	Encyclopedia of Associations
115	Research Centers and Services Directory
116	Brands and Their Companies
117	Water Resources Abstracts
118	ICONDA - International Construction Database
119	Textile Technology Digest
120	U.S. Copyrights
121	British Education Index
126	TRADEMARKSCAN®-U.K.
127	TRADEMARKSCAN®-Canada
131	Pharmacontacts
132	Standard & Poor's Daily News
133	Standard & Poor's Corporate Descriptions plus News
135	NewsRX Weekly Reports
137	Book Review Index
139	EconLit

141	Readers' Guide Abstracts Full Text
142	Wilson Social Sciences Abstracts
143	Wilson Biological & Agricultural Index
144	PASCAL
145	(Tacoma) The News Tribune
146	Washington Post Online
147	The Kansas City Star
148	Gale Group Trade & Industry Database™
149	Gale Group Health & Wellness Database(SM)
150	Gale Group Legal Resource Index™
154	MEDLINE® (1993-present)
155	MEDLINE® (1966-present)
156	ToxFile
158	DIOGENES® FDA Regulatory Updates
159	CANCERLIT®
160	Gale Group PROMT® (1972-1989)
161	Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSHTIC®)
162	CAB HEALTH
163	AgeLine
165	EventLine™
168	Healthcare Organizations
169	Insurance Periodicals Index
174	Pharm-Line®
175	Quotations Database
176	ONTAP® Art Literature International (RILA)
177	Advertiser and Agency Red Books™: Advertisers
178	Advertiser and Agency Red Books™: Agencies
179	Architecture Database
180	Federal Register
185	Zoological Record Online®
187	F-D-C Reports
188	Health Devices Sourcebook®
189	NDA Pipeline: New Drugs
190	The Bibliography of the History of Art®
191	Art Literature International (RILA)
192	Industry Trends and Analysis
196	FINDEX
198	Health Devices Alerts®
202	Information Science Abstracts
203	AGRIS International
204	ONTAP® CA SEARCH®: Chemical Abstracts®
205	ONTAP® BIOSIS Previews®
206	ONTAP® NTIS - National Technical Information Service
207	ONTAP® Social SciSearch®
208	ONTAP® Ei Compendex®
210	ONTAP® AGRICOLA
211	Gale Group Newsearch™
212	ONTAP® PsycINFO® Psychological Abstracts
213	ONTAP® INSPEC
226	TRADEMARKSCAN®-U.S. Federal

227	TRADEMARKSCAN®-Community Trademarks (CTM)
228	TRADEMARKSCAN®-Spain
229	Drug Information Fulltext
230	Gale Directory of Online, Portable, and Internet Databases
231	ONTAP® CHEMSEARCH™
233	Internet & Personal Computing Abstracts™
234	Marquis Who's Who®
236	Bowker Biographical Directory
238	Abstracts in New Technologies and Engineering (ANTE)
239	MathSci®
240	PAPERCHEM (non-subscriber)
241	Electric Power Database
245	WATERNET™
246	TRADEMARKSCAN®-U.S. State
247	ONTAP® Gale Group Magazine Database™
248	PIRA (Packaging, Paper, Printing ...
249	PIRA (Management and Marketing Abstracts
250	ONTAP® CAB Abstracts
251	ONTAP® Food Science and Technology Abstracts
252	Packaging Science and Technology Abstracts
253	ONTAP® INPADOC/Family and Legal Status
254	ONTAP® MEDLINE®
255	ONTAP® Arts & Humanities Search®
256	SoftBase: Reviews, Companies, and Products
257	API EnCompass™: News (non-subscriber)
258	AP News (January 2000 to present)
261	UPI News (June 1999-present)
262	Canadian Business and Current Affairs Fulltext
264	DIALOG Defense Newsletters
266	Federal Research in Progress (FEDRIP) (Unabridged)
269	Materials Business File™
272	ONTAP® EMBASE®
275	Gale Group Computer Database™
276	ONTAP® D&B - Dun's Market Identifiers®
277	ONTAP® Investext®
279	ONTAP® CLAIMS®/U.S. Patents
280	ONTAP® Derwent World Patents Index
281	ONTAP® Gale Group Marketing & Advertising Reference Service®
282	ONTAP® Aerospace Database
285	BioBusiness® (1985-1998)
286	BioCommerce Abstracts and Directory
287	Biography Master Index
290	ONTAP® DIALINDEX®
292	GEOBASE™
293	Engineered Materials Abstracts®
294	ONTAP® SciSearch®: a Cited Reference Science Database
296	ONTAP® TRADEMARKSCAN®-U.S. Federal
297	Bible (King James Version)
299	Magill's Survey of Cinema
301	CHEMNAME®

303	Chapman and Hall Chemical Database
304	The Merck Index Online(SM)
305	Analytical Abstracts
306	Pesticide Fact File
307	BioBusiness® (1985-1998)
315	Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Abstracts
317	Chemical Safety Newsbase
318	Chem-Intell Chemical Manufacturing Plants
319	Chemical Business NewsBase
321	PLASPEC™ Materials Selection Database
322	Polymer Online
323	RAPRA: Rubber and Plastics
328	Chemstats
332	Material Safety Data Sheets - OHS™
333	Material Safety Summary Sheets - OHS™
334	Material Safety Label Data - OHS™
335	Ceramic Abstracts
336	Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS®)
337	CHEMTOX® Online
347	JAPIO - Patent Abstracts of Japan
348	European Patents Fulltext
349	WIPO/PCT Patents Fulltext
357	Derwent Biotechnology Abstracts
358	Current Biotechnology Abstracts
360	Specialty Chemicals Update Program (SCUP) (non-subscriber)
363	Directory of Chemical Producers - Products
364	Directory of Chemical Producers - Companies
369	New Scientist
370	Science
371	French Patents
382	Baton Rouge Advocate
385	ONTAP® Analytical Abstracts
387	Denver Post
388	PEDS: Defense Program Summaries
389	ONTAP® Beilstein Online
390	Beilstein Online
392	Boston Herald
397	Las Vegas Review-Journal
398	CHEMSEARCH™
399	CA SEARCH®: Chemical Abstracts® (1967-present)
401	DIALMAIL-DIALOG
405	DIALOG Homebase(SM)
410	Chronolog® Newsletter™
411	DIALINDEX®
413	DIALOG Product Code Finder™
414	DIALOG Journal Name Finder™
415	DIALOG Bluesheets™
416	DIALOG Company Name Finder™
420	UnCover®
421	REMARC pre-1900 and n.d.

422	REMARC 1900-1939
423	REMARC 1940-1959
424	REMARC 1960-1969
425	REMARC 1970-1980
426	LC MARC - Books
427	Fort Worth Star-Telegram
430	British Books in Print
431	MediConf: Medical Conferences and Events
432	Tampa Tribune
433	Charleston Newspapers
434	SciSearch®: a Cited Reference Science Database 1974-1989+
435	Art Abstracts
436	Wilson Humanities Abstracts Full Text
437