Policy & Research Close Window

Searching the AgeLine Database Versus
Searching AARP's Website (AARP.org)



What Is the Difference Between an AgeLine Search
and an AARP.org Search?

The AgeLine database is a separate search universe from AARP.org and other search areas within AARP.org, such as the Policy & Research site and the My AARP site. If you search AgeLine, you are not searching AARP.org, and vice versa. However, some of the AARP documents and publications (primarily AARP research) that AgeLine describes exist in full on AARP.org. You may conduct a search on AARP's home page or the Policy & Research search page to find these documents. In the future AgeLine will provide direct links to these full-text AARP documents.


How Do AgeLine and AARP.org Differ in Content?

AgeLine describes English-language articles and books published in the United States and around the world, whereas AARP.org consists primarily of information about AARP benefits, programs, policies, and services as well as AARP information and research on a variety of topics.

For example, AARP.org contains information on health and wellness, leisure and fun, life transitions, money and work, legislative issues, and computers and technology. Although AgeLine's nearly 60,000 abstracts describe selected publications and articles produced by AARP, most of the abstracts in AgeLine describe journal and magazine articles, government and organizational reports, and books and book chapters published elsewhere.


Time Limit for Inactivity on AgeLine

You may search and browse indefinitely on both AgeLine and AARP.org, but if you are inactive for more than 20 minutes while connected to the AgeLine search session, you will be disconnected to allow other AgeLine searchers access to the database. If that occurs, you will need to restart your AgeLine search session at AgeLine's home page. For more information, see the Help Topic How Much Time Am I Allowed to Search AgeLine?


Leaving AgeLine to Search the
Policy & Research Site or AARP.org

The search box and the search link on the AARP.org navigation bar (at the very top of the screen if you scroll up) connect to a search page for the Policy & Research site on AARP.org. Keying a query in the AARP search box will temporarily take you out of the AgeLine search session and will provide results based on a search of the Policy & Research site, not AgeLine. If you are away from the AgeLine search session longer than 20 minutes, you will be disconnected from AgeLine. Use the BACK button on your browser to return to the AgeLine Search session.

Once you are in an AgeLine search session, use the second set of links near the top of the screen (titled "AARP Research Center, AgeLine") to navigate around AgeLine's search screens and help topics.


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