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VII. WilsonWeb
Terminology
Database
A database is an organized collection of related information. It is made
up of records, each of which represents a single unit of information, such
as a bibliographic citation to an article, a book, or a chapter in a book.
Each record is further divided into categories of information called
fields, such as title, author, and publication year.
Some databases are bibliographic, providing citations to published
documents. They may also include a summary or abstract of the document.
Some databases provide the full text of documents while others contain
biographies of newsmakers or authors.
Records
Each H.W. Wilson database is made up of units of information called
"records." Each record represents a single unit of information, such as a
bibliographic citation to an article, book chapter, or complete book. The
contents of the records depend upon the type of database—some databases
provide only bibliographic information, and others provide abstracts, the
full text of documents or biographies of noteworthy persons.
Fields
Each record is further divided into fields, such as Author and Title.
Each record in an H.W. Wilson database consists of units of information
called "fields." Each field contains a specific kind of information, such
as the name of an author, the text of an abstract a subject heading,
keywords, or a special code. To see a list of fields for the database you
are searching, refer to the Guide.
Field Labels:
Fields are identified by a field name and a label. Labels are two-to
four-character abbreviations, such as TI for the Title field. You can use
the field label to limit your search to a particular field.
Limit Fields:
Some database fields are limit fields. Limit fields are specially indexed
fields containing information common to a large number of records, such as
publication year or language of text.
Individually Indexed Fields:
Many fields in H.W. Wilson databases are individually indexed. There is an
alphabetical list of terms for each of these fields.
To Select Search Terms Directly from an Individually Indexed Field:
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Click Index on the button bar.
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Type a term in the Term: text entry box.
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In the Field: drop-down list, select the field in which you want to look
up the term.
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Click Display. WilsonWeb displays an alphabetical list of the terms
contained in the selected field, beginning with the term you typed, and
indicates in parentheses the number of records that contain each term.
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Scroll through the index terms on the current page, or click
Previous or
Next to show the previous or next range of index terms. (You can change
the number of the index terms WilsonWeb displays per page by selecting a
number from the Previous/Next Terms drop-down list.)
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Check one or more terms as you scroll.
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Click SearchNOW to search for records that contain the selected term(s).
(If you selected multiple terms, WilsonWeb combines them with the or
operator and finds records that contain any of the terms.)
Free-text Fields:
Those fields that are not individually indexed are known as free-text
fields. To search in all free-text fields, enter the term in the text
entry area of the Search page and search in the details, "(any field)."
Citation
The citation is a brief version of a record, usually comprising just those
fields necessary to find the document in a library. For example, the
citation might consist of the Title, Author, Source, and Publication Year
fields.
The citation fields vary from one database to the next. To see which
fields make up the citation for a particular database, refer to the Guide.
To Show the Citation:
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While showing records, click the Change Display button. WilsonWeb displays
the Entry Display Options page.
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In the Fields to Show area, check CITN - CITATION.
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Click Confirm Changes to return to the retrieved records. WilsonWeb
displays only the fields that make up the citation.
There are several kinds of hotlinks in H.W. Wilson databases.
Hotlinks:
Hotlinks appear in H.W. Wilson databases as they do in other Web pages. To
activate a link, click on it as you would any other link.
Guides
Each H.W. Wilson database has a unique Guide containing information
specific to that database. The Guide always includes a list of fields with
their descriptions and sample searches. It can also include explanations
of any special features of the database or lists of codes and keywords
used.
You can access the Guides of all the databases you are searching from
every Help page. From any WilsonWeb page, click Help on the button bar and
scroll to the bottom of the Help topic.
Field-Specific Indexes
Many of the fields in H.W. Wilson databases are individually indexed. For
example, a database might include an index for an author field that
contains the names of all authors in the database.
If a field is individually indexed, you can search its index at any time.
To Search a Field’s Index:
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Click the Browse button on the button bar to enter the
WilsonWeb Index
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Type a term in the Term: text entry box.
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In the Field: drop-down list, select the field in which you want to look
up the term.
-
Click Display. WilsonWeb displays an alphabetical list of the terms
contained in the selected field, beginning with the term you typed, and
indicates in parentheses the number of records that contain each term.
-
Scroll through the index terms on the current page, or click
Previous or
Next to show the previous or next range of index terms. (You can change
the number of index terms WilsonWeb displays per page by selecting a
number from the Previous/Next Terms drop-down list.)
-
Check one or more terms as you scroll.
-
Click SearchNOW to search for records that contain the selected term(s). (If you
selected multiple terms, WilsonWeb combines them with the or operator and
finds records that contain any of the terms.)
Note: To search for one term, click on the term rather than its checkbox. WilsonWeb searches for the term automatically.
Operators (See Section V)
Search History (See Section V)
Truncation and Wildcards (See Section V) |
