Help

Searching

Quick Search

The quick search option available on nearly every page in Daily Life Online allows users to type in a few keywords and view the results. Boolean operators are not necessary, but, if included, AND, OR, and NOT operators will be allowed to function as they normally would. If these operators are not detected, the keywords entered will be joined with ANDs.

Since this option is potentially a simple and broad search, it is recommended that users with specific searches or specific results in mind use the advanced search page, where results can be more powerfully controlled.

Advanced Search: Keyword Search

The keyword search option works much like the advanced search screen of major search engines, with some minor differences. For the keyword search only, all Boolean operators except wildcards will be removed in order to build the most reliable query. Instead of Boolean operators, use each text box as specified:

Keyword — searches throughout content for the specific word entered
Subject — searches the indexing terms associated with content for the specific word entered
Title — searches the titles of content for the specific word entered

You can link your search terms using AND, OR, NOT.

Advanced Search: Boolean Search

The Boolean search option offers much more powerful search capabilities than the keyword search, including the operators defined below. Those who choose to use this option must write their query using the specified Boolean terms. For convenience, a drop-down menu has been provided that will automatically insert them.

Advanced Search

Filters (a)

Advanced Search users also have the option to filter their search by content type (Articles, Book Chapters, Primary Documents, Internet Resources, Images and Maps). Checking one of the boxes will limit the search to that specific content area.

Users who own more than one Daily Life Online product also have the option to limit their search by source database: Daily Life through History, World Cultures Today, or World Folklore and Folklife. Again, checking the appropriate box will limit the search to that specific content are

Advanced Search: Search by Subject, Region, and Time Period (b)

Also available on the advanced search page are four dropdown menus that allow users to limit their searches by subject, region of the world, country of the world, and time period. These can be used in conjunction with a keyword or Boolean text search or on their own. How these options are connected to the rest of the query can also be controlled. Users can connect them with AND, OR, or NOT operators.

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Search Operators

The search operators that our search engine understands are:

A Word about Adjacency, Near, and Choice Operators

When used, the adjacency operator specifies the order in which terms must appear and how far apart those terms can be. In the example "black ADJ3 (plague OR death)," an entry must contain "black … plague" or "black … death" no more than three words apart and in that order to be returned. An entry only with "plague … black" will not be returned. The near operator disregards the order of terms and looks instead only for the distance between them.

The choice operator offers an alternative to the multiple character wildcard operator by allowing users to define specific word suffixes. As opposed to a search for "neighbor*," in the example "neighbor[,ly,hood]," any entries containing "neighbor," "neighborly," or "neighborhood" will be returned.

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Search Tips and Tricks

Quick Search vs. Advanced Search

The quick search option is available on nearly every page of Daily Life Online. It is built for ease of use and flexibility in that it can accept a simple list of keywords or the Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT. Since many users prefer simply to enter a string of keywords and view the results, quick search will take this list and build a Boolean AND query with the terms. For example, if a user types "sports in the ancient world," the query will actually be "Find all entries that have the words 'sports' and 'ancient' and 'world' in them." Many users will find these results perfectly acceptable.

Another way to conduct this search is to use the advanced search page. A slightly different set of results can be viewed by typing "sports" in the keyword section, checking the search by time checkbox for Ancient World, and checking the search by subject checkbox for Recreational Life. For broad searches in particular, the difference between a simple quick search and a more pointed advanced search can be significant.

Sample Searches

This example demonstrates the use of exact phrase searching. If, on the advanced search page, in the and this exact phrase box you type "French Revolution" and in the and any of these words box you type "food drink entertainment," your query in plain English will be "Find all entries that have the exact phrase 'French Revolution' along with any of the terms 'food,' 'drink,' or 'entertainment.'"

This example demonstrates the use of limiting search results based on region of the world and time period. On the advanced search page, type "retirement" in the All of these words box, select Europe and North America under the region checkboxes and change the operator to NOT, and then select Modern World and 19th Century under the time checkboxes, leaving the operator in the default AND position. Your query in plain English will be "Find all the entries that contain the term 'retirement' that do not relate explicitly to North America or Europe but do relate to the 19th Century and the Modern World."

This example demonstrates how to conduct a broad search using only the subject, region, and time period checkboxes. Rather than typing a search like "religious life in 17th-century Europe," use the metadata built into the product to ensure finding the most relevant results. On the advanced search page, scroll to the checkboxes and click Religious Life under subject, Europe under region, and 17th-18th Centuries under time period.

This example demonstrates the use of special Boolean operators. If, on the advanced search page, you click on the radio button to change the search type to Boolean search and type in "black ADJ3 (plague OR death)," your query in plain English will be "Find all entries with the word 'black' followed by either the word 'plague' or the word 'death' within three words after 'black.'"

Case Sensitivity, Special Characters, and Stemming

Searching is not case-sensitive. Searches for "French Revolution," "french revolution," and "FRENCH REVOLUTION" return the same results in the same order. Many special characters, such as "á" or "è," can be typed into the search boxes simply as "a" or "e." Words can be stemmed using the single character wildcard, ?, the multiple-character wildcard, *, or the choice operators [ ], as described above.

Question Mark Icons

Orange question mark icons Contextual Help Tip appear on the advanced search and search results pages. These are links to contextual help files that explain such topics as the difference between the keyword and Boolean searches, sort options, and other relevant topics.

Multiple Search Windows

The search implementation for Daily Life Online is based on browser sessions, which is one of the primary reasons why cookies must be accepted. If a user opens more than one browser window and searches are conducted in them, the most recent search overwrites all others. To avoid any confusion, it is recommended that users launch only one browser window to use this product.

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Search Results

Search results are organized under five tabs, articles, books, primary documents, images, and resources. The tabs are placed from left to right to represent a move from more general to more specific information. The tab with the highest number of items to display is selected as the default. Each tab displays 10 items per page, with approximately 20-30 words from the entry to provide some context.

When users select an item from this page, they will see the entry with the search terms highlighted. Under the images tab, users can click on the thumbnails to see larger versions, the caption, and a link to see the image in the context of the page.

Search Results

Search within Search Results (a)

If the original search returns a large selection of results, users can redefine the search by searching within their results set. On the results page, enter the new search term in the Quick Search box, check the "Search within your results" box, and click Go. For example, if the original search was for "France" a user could then perform a further search within the existing results for "revolution."

Keyword Search History (b)

Search history records search terms in order of use (although it does not also pick up search within search terms). To go back to a previous search, simply click on the search term. You will be returned to your previous set of search results.

Articles, Chapters, Tales, Primary Documents, Multimedia, Resources (c)

Articles represent articles that come from The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Daily Life, the Culture and Customs series, and entries from published reference books and pieces specially commissioned for this resource. Chapters represent material taken from a wide array of monographs and reference works that center around the study of everyday life. Primary documents are culled from many sources and include brief introductory remarks and bibliographic information, when available. Resources includes CIA World Factbook data, and illustrated electronic sidebars called Tours through Time or Spanning the Globe, that have been specially commissioned for the site, as well as the vetted Weblinks.

Users who own the World Folklore and Folklife module will see additional tabs: Tales and Multimedia. Tales contains all the actual examples of folk and fairy tales, but not information about them (which will fall under either Articles or Chapters). Multimedia includes the audio and video content.

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