USING THE KEYWORD SEARCH BOX:
The search engine searches the entire record (all fields) for terms entered in the KEYWORD search box. It is possible to conduct a complex search in the KEYWORD search box using Boolean Operators and nesting. PLEASE NOTE: The use of Boolean Operators, nesting, and phrases is ONLY possible in the KEYWORD search box.
BOOLEAN OPERATORS are the terms AND, OR and NOT. When the term AND is placed between two words, the search engine searches for articles containing BOTH the first and second word. Example: Quaternary AND beetle. When the term OR is placed between words, the search engine searches for articles containing EITHER the first or second word, or both. Example: petroleum OR oil. The term NOT is useful for eliminating irrelevant information. The search engine searches for records containing the first word BUT NOT containing the second word. Example: North Dakota NOT survey.
By using parentheses, search strings can be "NESTED" similar to mathematical formulas, resulting in complex, sophisticated searches. For example: (("white river" or brule or chadron) and (stratigraph or sediment or lith)) not lignite. Quotes are used to denote a phrase. See below for an explanation of TRUNCATION. In the proceeding example, the search engine looks for any records containing the phrase "white river" or the words brule or chandron. It also looks for any records containing the words stratigraphy or stratigraphic, etc. or sediment or sedimentary or sedimentation, etc. or lithology or lithologic. Then it will return any records that contain at least one word from the first group and at least one word from the second group, as long as the word "lignite" is NOT present.
TRUNCATION: The search engine automatically places wildcards at each end of a single term or phrase. For example, if you type "anders", it will match both "Flanders" and "Anderson".
USING THE FIELD SEARCH BOXES:
In addition to searching the entire record by using the KEYWORD box, it is also possible to limit the search by requiring words to exist within particular fields.
COMBINING FIELDS IN A SEARCH:
ANOTHER IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION:
FIELD EXPLANATIONS
In any of the below fields, truncation is supported for single terms, or at the beginning
or end of a phrase.
AUTHOR:
DATE:
TITLE:
SOURCE:
ANNOTATIONS:
During a Simple Search, the engine searches for the designated terms in any or all of the following fields:
Search choices are:
It is also possible to limit by publication year.
You may browse the database by author's last name by clicking a letter at the bottom of either search screen.
Send Comments about this page to Lura Joseph
URL: http://dp3.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu/ndgs/search-help.html
THE TREATMENT OF WORDS WITHIN FIELDS
The Keyword box is the only place that accepts Boolean Operators, or nesting. Search terms within field search boxes are treated as a phrase, and must be entered exactly as they appear in the database. For example, entering "Mary Scott" in the Author search box will retrieve zero records; "Scott, Mary" will retrieve 4 records.
AND is assumed between fields. For example, "quaternary" in both the Title and Annotation fields will retrieve only those citations which contain "quaternary" in both the Title and Annotation fields.
The formating of the original bibliographies has not been changed, and there are some inconsistencies which may effect search results. For example: "U. S. Geol. Survey" in Bibliography A, "U.S. Geological Survey" in Bibliography B, and "US Geological Survey" in Bibliography C.
Searches for primary or co-author. It searches as a phrase, and therefore
it is not possible to search for two authors simultaneously in this field. Use the
Keyword search box if you would like to search for coauthors, or if you are uncertain
of initials or first names.
Searches the year of publication. "Any date" ignores the date field. "Equal to"
requires the year to be exactly as given. "Before" and "After" options are available.
Searches the title of an article. Boolean searching is not available in this field. The
exact title, phrase, or term must be used.
Searches the source of an article, including the journal or monograph in which it
was published, and publisher. For example: "North Dakota Geological Survey". The formating
of the original bibliographies has not been changed, and there are some
inconsistencies which may effect search results. For example: "U. S. Geol. Survey" in
"U.S. Geological Survey" in Bibliography B, and "US Geological Survey" in
Bibliography C.
Searches the annotations of Bibliographies "A" and "B". There are no annotations in
"Bibliography C", consequently a search involving the Annotations field will
exclude approximately 1/3 of the database.
INDEX TERMS:
Index Terms are currently being added to the database. Since the work is not yet complete, this field is not available for searching separately, however, the search engine will search the Index Terms field as part of a Keyword search.
PRINT RESOURCE:
Searches by original print resource:
A: Scott, Mary Woods, 1972.
B: Scott, Mary Woods, 1981.
C: Greenwood, Larry, et al, 1996.
D: Material added since the last published bibliography
Author
Title
Source
Annotations
Keyword Terms
"All of these words" (boolean AND)
"Any of these words" (boolean OR)
"As a phrase"
Last modified June 19, 1999
Published by North Dakota State University Libraries