Policy & Research Close Window

Tips for Using AgeLine's Advanced Search


The Advanced Search screen provides the capability of linking three search boxes with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to produce more precise results. This search screen offers a great deal of flexibility for searching any words or phrases in any of the fields shown in AgeLine records. As with the other search screens, results may also be limited by publication year(s), document type(s), audience type(s), and maximum number of items to display.

In the first search box, key in a topic of interest, a partial or full title, an organizational or program name, or an author's name, and the search engine will search through all of AgeLine's 56,000+ records to retrieve those that contain your word or phrase. Avoid using "older," "aging," "senior," or "elderly" in your search query unless the word is an integral part of a title or topic, because the entire database concerns older adults and aging-related issues. Simply focusing on the topic(s) without using "aging" terms should provide you with satisfactory results most of the time.

The results will be displayed in chronological order, starting with the most recent publication year. AgeLine contains summaries of books and articles, not the full text, so the search engine searches for matches or near matches in the title, author name, journal title, abstract (summary), and subject (keyword) fields.

The search engine then highlights the matching words or phrases in the retrieved items displayed on the Search Results screens. View the items in their abstract format to most completely see the highlighted matches to your query.

See the Search Help topic Viewing, Printing, Marking, and Downloading Items for more information.


Search Specifications Behind Each Advanced Search Box


Entering a word or phrase in one of the three search query boxes is asking the search engine to search for a match or near match in one or more of the following fields: Title, Journal Title, Author, Abstract, and Subject. This search box allows you to search one topic, represented by a word or phrase, or several topics, each separated by a semicolon that operates as a Boolean OR.

For more information, see the Search Help topic Using Boolean Operators to Search.

The search engine for this search screen automatically places a truncation command at the end of any word that is 5 letters or longer. It also automatically connects the words within a topic with a Boolean NEAR command (which looks for a separation of no more than 5 words between each word, in either direction).

Example

If you input the following:

social security earning limit

the AgeLine search engine for this screen translates it to

(social* NEAR security* NEAR earning* NEAR limit*)


This search will pick up, for example, the following in the retrieved items:

Social Security earnings limit
Social Security earning limit
Social Security's earnings limits
Social Security earnings limitation
Social Security earnings limitations
limitations on Social Security earnings


If you would like more control over where the search engine truncates your search word(s), simply key in the root form (the root must be at least 5 letters long) and the search engine will look for the variants of the word).

Examples
retireRETRIEVES     retires, retiring, retirees, retirement
Mexican American RETRIEVES     Mexican American
    Mexican Americans
    Mexican-American
    Mexican-Americans


For important words that are less than 5 letters long, key in the topic using the various forms of the word, such as singular and plural. Separate each phrase with a semicolon to function as a Boolean OR that will retrieve all forms. For example, keying pet (a word with fewer than 5 letters) will only retrieve the singular form and will not retrieve the plural form pets unless you key both in the search box: pet; pets


Using Boolean Operators to Refine Your Search Results


The AgeLine Advanced Search screen defaults to an automatic Boolean AND between each of the three search boxes unless you wish to change the operators by clicking on OR or NOT between the search boxes.

Note to advanced searchers with complex search queries: The system first searches all of the items in Search Box 1 (including any items that are separated by a semicolon) before pairing the search query with that in Search Box 2. It searches queries in Search Boxes 1 and 2 before pairing the results with queries in Search Box 3.

Boolean AND


AND searches for the overlap between the queries in the search boxes. Thus, you will retrieve only those items that fit the search requirements in all of the search boxes linked by AND.

Example

retirement locations AND florida

You will retrieve those items that contain the first word (retirement) that are located within 5 words in either direction of the second word (locations) AND also contain the word florida somewhere in the record. As of June 2000, this search retrieves 36 records describing documents that focus on retirement locations and Florida.

Items that have retirement locations and Arizona somewhere in them, but not Florida, will not be retrieved.


Boolean OR


A semicolon between words or phrases in the search box acts as a Boolean OR. OR means "either one or the other, or both." If search terms are linked with OR, items having only one of the search terms will be retrieved, as will items having more than one of the search terms. OR is helpful for retrieving related concepts and for using multiple terms that describe the same concept. There is no limit to the number of topics that can be strung together with a semicolon within one search box, even though the search box is limited in terms of space for viewing your selections.

Example

financial planning; money management; personal finances

This search will look for the items that contain at least one of these topics.


You may also click on OR between the search boxes.

Example

financial planning
OR
money management
OR
personal finances


Boolean OR and AND Combined


OR is useful for stringing together similar topics so that you can retrieve related concepts before pairing with another topic or string of topics using AND.

Example

retirement locations; retirement communities; assisted living; where to retire
AND
florida; georgia; alabama

This search will first look for the items that contain at least one of the first four topics: retirement locations, retirement communities, assisted living, or where to retire.

Then it will look for the items that contain at least one of the three states.

Then it will find those items that contain at least one of the first topics and at least one of the states. Thus, you might retrieve items focusing on retirement locations in Georgia, assisted living in Alabama, or where to retire in Florida.


Boolean NOT


NOT allows you to exclude one or more words or phrases from your search results as a way of retrieving items that more precisely fit your information needs. Use the NOT operator carefully, only after a review of your search results indicates the need to eliminate words or phrases in order to provide a relevant result.

If you retrieve too many items, this search screen also allows you to limit results by publication year(s), document type, audience type(s), and the number of items to display. Note that the system defaults to retrieving a maximum of 200 of the most recent items per search. You can set your screen to retrieve more items per search (400 maximum, 600 maximum, or No Limit), but the search engine will generally take longer to retrieve your results.

See also the following Search Help topics:

Limit by Document Type
Limit by Publication Year
Limit by Number of Records to Display
Why Am I Getting Zero Results?


Help Topics [an error occurred while processing this directive]