Support : Publications : Chronolog Archives : September/October 2003

New Options for Dialog DataStar Alerts and DELIVERs

Dialog DataStar enhancements offer sophisticated tools for managing your search results

DELIVERs and Alerts

Once you have found just the right information on Dialog DataStar, you may not be able to resist reading through the documents while online. Consider, instead, using DELIVER (..DELIVER), a convenient way to send your results to another destination, such as your e-mail address, for review offline. DELIVER is effective for doing ad-hoc or "one off" searches. Documents are sent within one hour of being processed.

An Alert is a search you set up to run automatically at regular intervals. Alerts are a great solution for recurring information needs, such as monitoring an industry, a company or a technology. You can specify the frequency and expiration date of Alerts and have the newest information retrieved from your Alert profile sent directly to you each time the Alert is run.

Delivery options for both Alerts and DELIVERs include output via e-mail; postal mail; or, with prior set up, directly to your Lotus Notes™ server, your personal PrivateStar, or via FTP pickup. The latest enhancements to Dialog DataStar include several new delivery format options.

New Delivery Options

New delivery options for both Alerts and DELIVERs let you select the best delivery formats and layouts for your needs. See Chronolog online version for an example.

E-Journal Links and Images in Alerts and DELIVERs

Other enhancements for Dialog DataStar customers are the inclusion of images, which are part of the document, and the presence of e-Journal Links. If you have activated a subscription to an electronic journal using the latest version of the StarLinks Manager tool, then a link to the full article is included in your Alerts and DELIVERs. If available, e-Journal Links for your subscriptions are displayed in all three output formats: text, HTML and PDF.

Duplicate Detection and Clusters

Using DataStarClassic or DataStarClassic on the Web, Alerts can be set up to run in more than one database at a time. An Alert executed in multiple databases ensures more comprehensive retrieval as well as time saved managing a single Alert with integrated results. In addition, any duplicate records can be removed from the results before delivery.

Duplicate documents are removed from the results of the most recent Alert run by comparing them with results from previous runs of the same Alert over the past six months. This is particularly useful in files such as MEDLINE®, EMBASE® and BIOSIS Previews®, major biomedical databases where there is overlap in coverage. Duplicate detection is enabled by assigning Alerts (and DELIVERs) to a "Cluster." Duplicate documents can be removed from both Alerts and DELIVERs within the same Cluster.

Managing and Integrating Results

Using DataStarClassic or DataStarClassic on the Web, it is possible for you to manage and integrate all of your Alerts and DELIVERs using the Distribution database (DIST) or PrivateStar.

Every Alert or DELIVER, regardless of its destination, is immediately visible to you after execution and is accessible in the Distribution database for one month. To access the Distribution database, enter the database label DIST at the Enter Database Name prompt on DataStarClassic or DataStarClassic on the Web. When logging into DataStar, you are informed about the current status of your Distribution database. A very useful option in the Distribution database is the ..RESEND command, which allows you to resend documents at no additional cost. Alerts and DELIVER results in DIST can be sorted a number of ways to provide useful management information for the "performance" of current Alerts and sources of relevant documents. For example, a sort by database offers a useful overview for evaluating which databases provide the best results.

With PrivateStar, you can send copies or the original output of all your Alerts and DELIVERs into a permanent, private archive database (PRIV). This archive is a fully functional and searchable Dialog DataStar database for secure and exclusive use by your organization. You can add your own data to a PrivateStar database, in addition to search results from Alerts and DELIVERs, creating a single source for both your organization's internal information and published information retrieved online.

Putting It All Together

Dialog DataStar offers a sophisticated, comprehensive and flexible suite of tools--unequaled by any other online service--for managing offline delivery and integration of search results.

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