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Access (ISU Campus):
From the e-Library@Iowa State University (www.lib.iastate.edu), in the Collections menu choose Indexes and Abstracts, then pick Compendex from the list by title. Pick the Compendex link at the top of ISU Library's description page. This links to the Ei Engineering Village 2 page; choose Compendex from the Select Database menu.
Basic search mechanics:
Enter information in one or more of the boxes on the Quick Search screen, then click a Search button. If any records match the search, citations for up to 25 records will appear in the window below the search form. To see more records, scroll to new numbers in the blue bar above the search results and click the nearby Go button.
Topic searching:
For a concept that can be expressed in one word or a short phrase, use one search box on the Quick Search screen.
Example:
dam
GIS
airport runway
Also use a single search box on the Quick Search screen for a search if the results should contain all the listed words or topics.
Example:
GIS bridge earthquake
Terms searched in the same Quick Search box will be found in the same record field, e.g., authors and subject keywords cannot be searched in the same search box. Do NOT use Boolean operators within a Quick Search box.
To search in two or three different parts of the same record (e.g. searching for an author name with a title keyword), or to combine search terms with AND, OR, or NOT, use two or three Quick Search boxes with appropriate Boolean operators between them.
To find records where the search terms occur together in order, enclose the search phrase in braces {}.
Example:
{channel tunnel}
{near earth objects}
For a topic that combines several concepts, use Expert Search. Group words with parentheses if using more than one type of connector; possible connectors are AND, OR, NOT and NEAR.
Example:
{soil mechanics} AND drainage tunnel AND (excavation OR drilling)
Words or phrases used as Ei Subject Terms (for examples, see the abstract view of most records) can be used with the Abstract/Title/Subject Terms choice in the Search In menu of Quick Search, or in Expert Search with field code CV.
Example:
air traffic control WN CV
Truncation:
On both the Quick Search and Expert Search screens, words can be truncated with * to replace any word ending; e.g., searching for dam* finds dam, dams, damp, damage, and so on. In Quick Search, words entered in an All Fields, Title, or Abstract/Title/Subject Terms search will be autostemmed, or searched with additional word endings. Autostemming tends to find only words that have related meanings (e.g., dam does not autostem to damp).
Broadening a search:
To edit a search to find more records, try:
--linking a term to other terms with similar meanings with OR.
--truncating word endings to catch plurals or alternate forms.
--using fewer terms if the first search combined several concepts.
Narrowing a search:
To edit a search to find fewer, more focused records, try:
--adding more terms (more concepts) to the search with AND.
--changing the record field searched from All Fields to Title or (in Expert Search) Ei Subject Terms; the topic searched is more likely to be a major focus of the papers in the search results.
Author searching:
To find articles in Compendex by a known author, click the Author radio button in the box at the far right of the Quick Search screen, then click Lookup below that. In the search box in the new window, type an author's last name, comma, space, and first initial.
Example:
flathers, g
Click Lookup. Now click on the boxes in front of up to three likely variations of the author's name.
Example:
Flathers, G.W. II
Flathers, George W. II
These names will appear in the search boxes. Finally, click on a Search button. Author names can also be searched with truncation.
Example:
flathers, g*
Sorting:
Search results can be sorted by relevance or by publication date; the default sort is by relevance. Records are judged more relevant if the search terms are more frequent or closer together. To switch the sort type, click the Sort Results By radio button before clicking Search.
Printing, downloading, and e-mailing:
Use the Results Manager at the bottom of the search results screen to print, download, or e-mail your choice of records in your choice of format.
Displaying abstracts:
To display an abstract of an article along with the citation, click on the Abstract link at the bottom of the citation. To display several abstracts at once, select the records by clicking in the small boxes to the left of each desired citation, change the Select Result Format menu to Abstract, then click New Display. The Detailed Record format may include some additional information.
Starting a new search:
Click the Reset button or the Quick Search or Expert Search tabs to start a new search. If you are starting a new Quick Search, you may need to reselect Compendex.
12/01
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Last modified:
Thursday, 17-Jan-2002 11:49:11 CST
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