Searching

1 -  Different levels and approaches: 
   1. easy 
       1.1 expert
   2. menu/windows driven
       2.1 command driven
   3. browsing term lists/indexes directly pointing to records
   4. complex query expressions
   5. browsing record list
   6 . smart/live groups

Short Record List browsing is default window, database dependent: one record per line, can choose any field to display in up to six columns. Quick Find: enter string based upon sort key. Sort on any displayed field by clicking the column field bar

Short Record List browsing is default window, common to all databases: one record per line; can handle up to eight (8) columns and use any field to display (option for all authors or first only). Quickly move to record by directly entering a string belonging to first sort field key (no special window is displayed). Sort (A/D) on any displayed field by clicking the column field bar. Cannot use term lists here to point to records. Cannot toggle between short list and search result: one or the other. Can show preview of one highlighted record 

Short Record list browsing is default window, not database dependent -and can apply to all lists (retrieved, imported, duplicates etc.): one record per line, can choose any field to display (up to 37); sort on any displayed field by clicking the column field bar

2 - Term lists derived from indexes useful for browsing and searching see:Term/Entry lists 11

3 - Thesaurus (structured dictionary with relationships among terms)

4 -  Can use and nest parentheses to create real query expressions

5 -  Natural language queries

6 -  Search strategy : can save and recall search expressions

7 -  Refine (search within search result)

8 -  Advanced search features
    1. best match, weighted terms, ranking
    2. fuzzy, sounds like
    3. hypertext-like: navigation
    4. tag clouds

9  -  Highlighting search terms in result (and jump to next occurrence of terms)

10  -  Scope of searching within a record 
    1. one or more distinct fields
    2. cluster of fields
    3. full text = any field (i.e. all the fields are indexed and searchable) 

11 -  Diacritics make difference (it is considered an "unpleasant" feature, if it cannot be disactivated)

12 -  Priority within search operators and queries

13 -  Boolean operators
    1. AND
    2. OR
    3. NOT (unary)
    4. AND NOT (binary)
    5. XOR

14 -  Relational operators
   (e.g.  contains,  equal, not-equal <>,  less than  < ,  less or equal  <=,  greater than  >,  greater or equal   >=,  range )  

15 -  Can combine boolean, relational operators, parentheses, truncation etc.

16 -  Truncated search (wildcards are explicit/implicit) 
    (right , left , l/r)

17 -  Search for not/empty fields

18 -  Internal wildcards ("masking" e.g. ? *, where m*ss stands for miss mass mess mistress ...)

19 -  Z39.50 & Pubmed Searching

Bibus : PubMed, only

• completely hidden to the user
• search interface offers multiple windows and boolean operators, fields choice depends on the PubMed configuration 
• automatically saves result in a temporary group: PubMed, and let you transfer it into a permanent group
• cannot save search expressions
• cannot modify or create new basic connections apart from changing the PubMed URL
• cannot modify import filters or create new ones
• cannot specify text characters set (ANSEL, Latin-1...)
  

EndNoteWeb (web based):   yes

RefWorks (web based): yes

1. embedds BookWhere® search engine;
2. use special -simplified and limited- search interface (e.g.: cannot use parentheses: (A or B) and (C or D) will not be possible);
3. can search different databases simultaneously;
4. automatically converts and saves result in db, separate folder;
5. can save search expressions; 
6. modify or add new hosts and configure; 
7. configure conversion filters which are separate files but many connections can share the same filter (e.g. MARC21); one single file contains all the different hosts configurations and properties;
8. cannot specify text characters set (ANSEL or Latin-1 etc.)

1. embedded proprietary software built upon the Yaz toolkit;
2. use same interface as normal searching function (with less options but it can also search in command line mode: \\[search-term]&/attribute type/attribute value ...);
3. cannot search different databases simultaneously, but can launch more than one parallel search session; 
4. automatically save result in a group or db without asking for conversion;
5. can save search expressions; 
6. modify or add new hosts and configure them; 
7. configure conversion filters; host configuration, connection properties are stored in individual files so that many connections cannot share the same conversion filter (e.g. MARC21) but copies or adaptations of it; 
8. can specify text characters set (ANSEL, Latin-1, Unicode UTF-8, Unicode UTF-16 ... etc.) and > 24 record format syntaxes

1. embedds BookWhere® search engine;
2. use same interface as normal searching function (practically cannot use parentheses);
3. can search different databases simultaneously;
4. automatically converts and saves result in db, separate folder;
5. can save search expressions; 
6. modify or add new hosts and configure;
7. configure conversion filters which are separate files but many connections can share the same filter (e.g. MARC21, UNIMARC); one single file contains all the different hosts basic configurations and properties; 
8. can specify text characters set (ANSEL or Latin-1)
9. in addition to Z39.50 hosts, an "ISI" option lets -password required- search ISI databases, such as Science Citation Index, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index. Resulting records can be downloaded, automatically converted and linked back to records in ISI's database
10. can generate OpenUrl compliant data from citations and send them to a link resolver 

20 - Number of Z39.50 targets/connections