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.

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