Searching DialogWeb for the Business Professional
Glossary of Search Terms
Additional Indexes include all other searchable fields in the database, for example, the company name field, the journal field, the number of employees field.
The Basic Index is the index of subject words in a database.
The BEGIN command allows us to access a database. Each database has a file number. To access a specific database, we enter the command BEGIN (abbreviated B) followed by the file number of the database to be searched. Databases and their file numbers are listed at http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/blf.html. Dialog databases can also be searched as a group of up to 60 databases. Each BEGIN command we enter clears all sets we have created.
Bibliographic citation includes the title, author, date of publication, and source of an article. The amount of information may vary according to the database.
Business & Industry™ (File 9) is a multi-industry database that covers over 600 important trade and business publications in more than 30 countries. Editorial emphasis is on facts, figures, and key events related to companies, industries, markets, and products.
Cengage PROMT® (File 16) is a multi-industry database that provides broad international coverage of companies, products, markets, and applied technologies for virtually all manufacturing and service industries. It contains publications from trade journals, local newspapers, regional business publications, national and international business newspapers, trade and business newsletters, research studies, investment analysts' reports, news releases, and corporate annual reports.
Cengage Trade & Industry Database™ (File 148) provides broad international coverage of companies, industries, products, and markets, featuring specialized coverage of management practices, financial earnings, economic climate, industry overviews, and executive changes.
The CURRENT command allows us to restrict a search to the most recent records in a file. It is appended to the BEGIN command: BEGIN 4 CURRENT. We can restrict to records added during the most current calendar year and the previous year, or to the current year and a specified number of years, up to five:
CURRENT restricts to current year plus one back year
CURRENT1 restricts to current year plus one back year
CURRENT2 restricts to current year plus two back years
CURRENT3 restricts to current year plus three back years
CURRENT4 restricts to current year plus four back years
CURRENT5 restricts to current year plus five back years
A database is a collection of related information stored electronically. The database includes the documents, or records, plus its associated indexes.
Subject descriptors, or subject headings, are terms that express the main topics found in an article. Descriptors are usually assigned by a person who reads the article. Searching on descriptor terms helps eliminate records that may have the search terms, but are not really about the topic.
DIALINDEX is a master index to most of the Dialog databases. In DIALINDEX we can compare the number of records retrieved from a group of databases. DIALINDEX is particularly useful when we do not know which databases to search, when the topic is not well-known, or when we want to do a comprehensive search and cover everything on a topic.
A field is a distinct part or section of a record. Typical fields include title, author, journal name, and publication date. In a business directory database, fields include company name, city names, zip codes, sales figures, to name a few. Check the Bluesheet since fields vary according to the database.
Formats determine the amount of information displayed for each record. The Format list box lists the basic format options. The format we select is used for the records retrieved when we click Display in the Search History table. The basic format options are: Free, Short, Medium, Long, Full, and KWIC. They are used for the records retrieved when we click the Display button.
Identifiers are index terms assigned to a record by an indexer but are generally not from a controlled vocabulary. Identifiers frequently are proper names, geographic locations, or terms that have not yet been added to the thesaurus.
Logical operators define the logical relationships among the terms being searched. Three kinds of logical relationships are defined on Dialog: OR, AND, and NOT. Logical operators are also known as Boolean operators.
The LOGOFF command ends your search activities for a given session. You may also use several shorter words to disconnect, including BYE, LOG, OFF, QUIT, or STOP. When you enter LOGOFF, Dialog displays estimated costs for the search session, then disconnects you from the Dialog system. When you logoff, all of the sets created are erased.
Major U.S. Newspapers provides information from newspapers with major circulation throughout the United States. Newspapers included in this category are The New York Times (File 471), the Washington Post (File 146), The Los Angeles Times (File 630), The Chicago Tribune (File 632), The Philadelphia Inquirer (File 633), and The Boston Globe (File 631), to name a few.
OneSearch® allows us to conduct a full search of a collection of related databases (up to 60), browse the indexes, or display records. We can search using OneSearch categories or mix OneSearch categories and file numbers (e.g., b businessnews, 471).
Proximity connectors specify the relative nearness or adjacency of search terms. They are used in two-word or multiple-word phrases or phrases that have punctuation or stop words. Proximity connectors on Dialog include (w), (n), (#w), (#n), and (s).
A record is a generic term for the discrete items in a database. Depending on the database, a record may be a news article, company profile, patent, numeric data, or other type of document.
The SELECT command, abbreviated S, creates a set of records containing specified search terms. Note that in DIALINDEX the SELECT command is used to identify databases that contain specific search terms; however, no sets are created.
Stop words are nine non-searchable words on the Dialog system. They include: AN, AND, BY, FOR, FROM, OF, THE, TO, WITH. These words should not be included in a subject search.
