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:

The search operators that our search engine understands are:

• and ( AND or + )
• or ( OR or | )
• not ( NOT or - )
• adjacency ( ADJ# replace the # with a number )
• near ( NEAR# replace the # with a number )
• frequency ( ># replace the # with a number)
• operator priority ( parentheses )
• single character wildcard ( ? )
• multiple character wildcard ( * )
• choice ( [ ] )

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.

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.

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Sort Options
Results can be sorted in several ways using the drop-down menu on the advanced search page:

• # of terms found
  This option counts the number of occurrences of all search terms found and sorts from highest to lowest.
• Subject
  Results are sorted by subject in the order defined by the metadata outlined below.
• Region
  Results are sorted by region in the order defined by the metadata outlined below.
• Time
  Results are sorted by time in the order defined by the metadata outlined below.

Question Mark Icons
Orange question mark icons 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.

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.

Encyclopedia Articles, Book Chapters, and Primary Documents
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. Book chapters represent material taken from books that originally appeared in the Greenwood Daily Life through History series. These narrative reference books focus on a particular topic, for example Daily Life in Civil War America. Book chapters also include material from a wide array on 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.

Re-Sorting
In the left-hand column of the search results page, users have the option of re-sorting results as outlined above. Sorting does not have to be pre-selected on the advanced search page.