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Tips for Using AgeLine's Multiple-Options
Search Screen:

Searching by Title, Journal Title, Author, Subject, or Any Word(s)


Use this search screen if you are looking for a particular title, journal title, author, or subject in the AgeLine database. It allows you to browse AgeLine's index for the exact titles, journal titles, author names, and subjects used in the AgeLine records; paste them directly into the appropriate search boxes; and/or combine these searches with an "any word(s)" search. You may also key your query directly into the search box(es).

In addition, this search screen allows you to combine two or more searches in these fields, by an automatic Boolean AND between fields. (For more information, see the Search Help topic Using Boolean Operators to Search.) For example, you may want to search for an article written by Harry Moody on dignity in old age, documents authored by AARP addressing "trends," Time or Newsweek articles on older drivers, research in the Gerontologist focusing on elder abuse and neglect, or articles in American Demographics with information on the baby boomers. See the bottom of this page for specific instructions on how to perform each of these searches.

In each search query box on this screen, entering a semicolon between words or phrases operates as a Boolean OR.

As with the other search screens, you may limit results by publication year(s), audience type(s), document type, and maximum number of items to display.


General Instructions for Each Search Box

Title

Use this search box primarily for titles other than journal or magazine names. If you want to search for articles published in a journal or magazine, use the Journal Title Search box, described below.

Key in only words that you know are in the title. It is usually not necessary to key in every word of the title to retrieve your record. If unsure, browse or search the title index by clicking on the BROWSE TITLES button, following the directions on that page to paste the title(s) into the Title Search box.


Examples
If you key or paste in the following in the Title Search box,
Successful aging and creativity in later life
you will retrieve one record describing an article from the Journal of Aging Studies, published
Winter 1999.
If you key in
Successful aging and creativity
you will retrieve 15 items that have "successful," "aging," and "creativity" somewhere in
the title. ("And" is a stop word; that is, it is ignored in the search.)

You may also want to search by word or topic in the Title Search box as a way of limiting your search results. (For example, keying AARP in the Title Search box will retrieve only documents with AARP in the title.)

Journal Title

Key in the name of a magazine or journal to retrieve all the articles from that publication that have been abstracted in AgeLine. Separate multiple titles with semicolons to perform Boolean OR. To determine if the journal is covered in AgeLine, to avoid keying errors, or to identify the exact name of a journal, search/browse the journal title index and paste the journal title into the search box.

Example

Journal Title: Fortune; Forbes
(This retrieves 79 items as of 7/2000)

Author

You may browse or search the author index to find an author's name. Clicking on the BROWSE AUTHORS button allows you to browse or search for all the various forms of an author's name in the database. The authors' names are listed alphabetically by the last names.

To search the author index for a specific author after clicking BROWSE AUTHORS, key in the first letter of the last name, the last name, or the last name followed by first name or initial to jump to that point of the alphabetical author index.

Once you've identified the form(s) of the author's name, select the name(s) by clicking to the left of the author's name(s), and add the author's name(s) to your search query by clicking the PASTE button. Click the SEARCH button on the search page to activate the search.

Example

Author: butler, robert; butler, robert n.
(this search retrieves 69 items as of 7/2000)


The system automatically separates each name with a semicolon to function as a Boolean OR.

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

You may also key an author's name in this order:

Author: dave barry
(this search retrieves 1 record as of 7/2000).


You may want to key in only the author's last name if the name is not very common:

Author: zabrucky
(this search retrieves 7 items as of 7/2000).

Subject

Browse or search the subject index by clicking on the BROWSE SUBJECTS button, selecting one or more subjects from the 2,000+ subjects available, and pasting the subject(s) into the Subject Search box. You may also use AgeLine's Thesaurus of Aging Terminology, 6th Edition, to select your subjects and then key them in yourself. To order a copy of the Thesaurus, click Thesaurus of Aging Terminology to retrieve and print an order form. Orders must be prepaid ($10.00 for shipping and handling).

When subjects are pasted from the index, the system automatically separates multiple subject terms with a semicolon to function as the Boolean OR. If you would like to pair two or more subjects with a Boolean AND or NOT, use the Advanced Subject Search screen.

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

Any Word(s)

Entering a word or phrase in this search box 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.

The Any Word(s) 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.

Truncation: The search engine in the Any Word(s) search query box 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).

Note: This is different from what is done in the Basic Search screen query box, which automatically adds the truncation symbol (*) immediately after the 7th character of each word, regardless of the length of the word.

Example

If you input the following in the Any Word(s) box:

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 the following in the retrieved items:

Social Security earning limit
Social Security earnings 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 the root form of any word that is at least five letters long and the search engine will look for the variant of the word. The truncation feature in this box functions the same as in the Advanced Search boxes. As mentioned above, the Basic Search box uses a different type of automatic truncation.

     Example
     retir retrieves retire, retires, retiring, retiree,
retirees, retirement
     Mexic American retrieves     Mexican American, Mexican Americans,
Mexican-American, Mexican-Americans,
Americans Living in Mexico


See Search Help topic Why Am I Getting Zero Results? for information on crafting valid or broad-enough search queries.


Selected Examples of Searches Using
the Multiple-Options Search Screen

Title: Dignity in old age

AND
Author:

 Moody
(retrieves one record as of 7/2000)
Author: AARP

AND
Any Word(s): trends
(retrieves 61 items as of 7/2000)
Journal Title: Time; Newsweek

AND
Any Word: older drivers
(retrieves 2 items as of 7/2000)
Journal Title: Gerontologist

AND
Subject: elder abuse; elder neglect
(retrieves 27 items as of 7/2000)
Journal Title: American demographics

AND
Subject: baby boom generation
(retrieves 50 items as of 7/2000)


Remember to use the CLEAR FORM button before starting each new search.


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