Help Topics
Database Categories
Institutions assign categories and sub-categories to databases. You can locate databases by selecting a category and a sub-category in Find Database or in MetaSearch.
A sample category is Humanities. Each category of databases is sub-divided by the institution into sub-categories. For example, the category Humanities can be subdivided into Archeology, History, Languages and so on.
The All sub-category includes all the databases in the selected category.
The General category includes all the databases that do not belong to a specific subcategory.
A sample category is Humanities. Each category of databases is sub-divided by the institution into sub-categories. For example, the category Humanities can be subdivided into Archeology, History, Languages and so on.
The All sub-category includes all the databases in the selected category.
The General category includes all the databases that do not belong to a specific subcategory.
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What Kind of Terms Should I Enter?
MetaLib combines keyword and phrase search features. The term that you enter in a search query has a significant effect on the results that will be found.
In general, you should avoid punctuation when entering single or multiple words.
Searching for Single Words
When asked to enter a term, you can enter a single word, a single letter or part of a word followed by a question mark (?). A question mark is a wild card, which means that it matches any value. For example: you can type optim? to find records containing optimal, optimize or optimum.Searching for Multiple Words
When asked to enter a term, you can also enter more than one word, as follows:- Keyword Search: To search for documents that contain all of the specified words, enter the list of words without quotation marks. For example: education children returns all documents containing both the word education and the word children (keyword search).
- Phrase Search: To search for a phrase, enter the phrase in quotation marks. For example: "education of children" returns all documents containing this exact phrase.
In general, you should avoid punctuation when entering single or multiple words.
General Guidelines
- Avoid using words such as a, an and the in your search. The more search terms used, the more specific, and fewer the results.
- To broaden your search results, use synonyms or truncate words with a question mark.
- The standard format for authors' full names is Last, First or First Last. Names of authors may be stored in different variations, meaning that the same author may be listed as Johnson, Mary in one place and as Johnson, M in another, It may be best to search for all variations of the name, or better yet to truncate it and to search for Johnson, M?.
- It is difficult to predict whether the databases list their subjects as maps, ancient or ancient maps. For the best results, search maps AND ancient.
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Clusters and Facets
The Clusters and Facets panel appears on the right side of the Search Result pages and enables an at-a-glance view of the results according to their topic, date, author and Journal Title.
To filter the records in the search results list (in the left panel) by a cluster topic or by a facet (date, author or Journal Title), click one of the topic or facet nodes. Only those records belonging to the selected topic or facet will be displayed in the left panel. When you filter the records by a topic or facet, the name of the topic will be displayed at the top and the bottom of the page along with the number of records in that topic.
To view all records retrieved in the last search, click All retrieved records. The list will be displayed according to the last sort order.
You can click the plus sign to expand a topic and view the list of sub-topics
The first five nodes are shown for each cluster or facet. You can click the down arrow to see the full list of topics or facets.
Note that clustering is performed only on merged lists. Since by default all results in QuickSearch are returned as merged lists, clustering is always displayed in the QuickSearch Table and Brief Views.
Results are only clustered in MetaSearch when you view the Combined Results.
Facets
To filter the records in the search results list (in the left panel) by a cluster topic or by a facet (date, author or Journal Title), click one of the topic or facet nodes. Only those records belonging to the selected topic or facet will be displayed in the left panel. When you filter the records by a topic or facet, the name of the topic will be displayed at the top and the bottom of the page along with the number of records in that topic.
To view all records retrieved in the last search, click All retrieved records. The list will be displayed according to the last sort order.
You can click the plus sign to expand a topic and view the list of sub-topics
The first five nodes are shown for each cluster or facet. You can click the down arrow to see the full list of topics or facets.
Note that clustering is performed only on merged lists. Since by default all results in QuickSearch are returned as merged lists, clustering is always displayed in the QuickSearch Table and Brief Views.
Results are only clustered in MetaSearch when you view the Combined Results.
See also
ClustersFacets
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Clusters
The term clustering refers to the automatic grouping of search result records according to their topic to enable quick and easy access. It differs from other techniques (such as: classification, taxonomy building, tagging and so on) in that it requires no pre-processing or human intervention.
Clustering in MetaLib is performed by a textual analysis engine, which intelligently assigns each record to one or more topics according to the text contained within the search results.
Clustering creates a hierarchical view that enables end users to analyze search results at a glance. Each topic is listed along with a number indicating how many records were found relating to this topic. You can click the plus sign to expand a topic and view a list of sub-topics or the list of records of that topic.
After a search is performed, a panel is displayed on the right side of the page, which shows the cluster topics as generated by the clustering engine.
The first five nodes are shown for each cluster or facet. You can click to expand the list. You can then click to collapse the list.
To view all the resulting documents, click All retrieved records. The list is then displayed according to the last sort order chosen.
Note that clustering is performed only on merged lists. Since by default all results in QuickSearch are returned as merged lists, clustering is always displayed in the QuickSearch Table and Brief Views.
Lists in MetaSearch are not always merged since you can view the results from each database separately. Results are only clustered in MetaSearch when you view the Combined Results.
Facets
Clustering in MetaLib is performed by a textual analysis engine, which intelligently assigns each record to one or more topics according to the text contained within the search results.
Clustering creates a hierarchical view that enables end users to analyze search results at a glance. Each topic is listed along with a number indicating how many records were found relating to this topic. You can click the plus sign to expand a topic and view a list of sub-topics or the list of records of that topic.
After a search is performed, a panel is displayed on the right side of the page, which shows the cluster topics as generated by the clustering engine.
The first five nodes are shown for each cluster or facet. You can click to expand the list. You can then click to collapse the list.
To view all the resulting documents, click All retrieved records. The list is then displayed according to the last sort order chosen.
Note that clustering is performed only on merged lists. Since by default all results in QuickSearch are returned as merged lists, clustering is always displayed in the QuickSearch Table and Brief Views.
Lists in MetaSearch are not always merged since you can view the results from each database separately. Results are only clustered in MetaSearch when you view the Combined Results.
See also
Clusters and FacetsFacets
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Facets
In addition to assigning documents to cluster topics, MetaLib also groups the selected documents by predetermined facets:
Only up to five options are shown for each facet. You can click to expand the list. You can then click to collapse the list.
To view all the resulting documents, click All retrieved records. The list will be displayed according to the last sort order chosen.
Note: A facet is displayed only if is meaningful. For instance, if each returned record has a different author, then it is not meaningful to display the Author facet, since the list of facets would be identical to the full list. If, on the other hand, the search returns 200 records out of which 10 were written by one author and the other 190 were written by various other authors, then two facets would appear: the author of the 10 records and a facet labeled Other containing the remaining 190 records.
Clusters
- Date: Documents are grouped according to their publication year.
- Author: Documents are grouped according to their authors.
- Journal Title: Documents are grouped according to their journal titles.
Only up to five options are shown for each facet. You can click to expand the list. You can then click to collapse the list.
To view all the resulting documents, click All retrieved records. The list will be displayed according to the last sort order chosen.
Note: A facet is displayed only if is meaningful. For instance, if each returned record has a different author, then it is not meaningful to display the Author facet, since the list of facets would be identical to the full list. If, on the other hand, the search returns 200 records out of which 10 were written by one author and the other 190 were written by various other authors, then two facets would appear: the author of the 10 records and a facet labeled Other containing the remaining 190 records.
See also
Clusters and FacetsClusters
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