|
[or, go back to the Basic Searching
Tutorial ]
(Note: Be sure to make any text selections for restricted
searches before going to the Other Searches screen.)
To do a Region Search:
- Enter the word or phrase you wish to search for, as in the Simple
Search.
- Choose a region (i.e., a structural element common to the
texts of the database) for searching.
- The selection of search regions depends on the type of texts which
make up the database:
- Collections of poetry are likely to offer poems, stanzas, and
first lines as searchable regions;
- Collections of drama will offer acts and scenes;
- Collections of prose will offer books, chapters or paragraphs.
- Regions obviously vary in specificity:
- Searching within scenes in a drama database is very general,
and will probably result in every occurrence of a word except
when it is within notes, stage directions or front matter.
- Some databases offer very specific searchable regions
based not only on structural elements, but also on considerations
of genre or authorship,
for example "Poem by Female Author" or "Epistolary Fiction."
- Click on the Search button.
To do a Boolean Search:
- Enter the words or phrases you wish to search for, as in a Simple
Search.
- Select a Boolean operator:
- AND will return all occurrences in which both words
appear.
- OR will return all occurrences in which either word
appears.
- BUT NOT will return all occurrences in which the first word
appears,
except those in which the second word also appears.
- Choose a region, as in Region Search above,
in which the two search expressions should be sought.
- Click on the Search button.
To do a Proximity Search:
- Enter the words or phrases you wish to search for, as in a Simple
Search.
- Select a proximity operator:
- Near returns all instances where both words or phrases occur
within a specified range of each other.
- Not near returns all instances where the first word
occurs without the second.
- Followed by is like near, but returns only instances
where the second word or phrase comes after the first.
- Not followed by is like not near, but excludes only
instances
where the second word or phrase comes after the first.
- There are no "before" operators, since "before"-type results can
be achieved
by reversing the order of the two search expressions.
- Choose a range, expressed in number of characters,
within which the two search expressions should be sought.
- Click on the Search button.
- Note that occasionally a Proximity Search can return a match
in which the two search expressions occur in adjacent but distinct
structural elements.
This means that when you view the fuller context
of a Proximity Search match,
one of the search expressions may be missing.
Speech Search
This search allows you to search for a word or phrase in speeches of selected
characters, for example, to answer questions like: "Who mentions power
more, King Richard II or King Richard III?"
To do a Speech Search:
- Enter the word or phrase you wish to search for.
- Note that if you enter a word not followed
by a space, then it will be treated as a prefix (i.e., searching
for the word "power" will return all occurrences of the word "power,"
as well as "powerful," "powerless," "powers," etc.).
- If the word or phrase is followed by a space, then
only occurences of that word (or of phrases ending with precisely the
final word of the search phrase) will be returned.
- Enter a search expression for the name of the character whose speeches
you wish to search.
- Select one of the logical operators with which to search
the character's name: contains / doesn't
contain, starts / ends with, or is / is not.
- Enter the name (or portion of the name) of the character you
wish to search (or exclude).
- Click on the Search button.
Boolean/Speech Search
This search allows you to search for two words or phrases in the speech of
selected characters, for example, to answer questions like: "Does Romeo
mention love and death in the same speech? Does Juliet?"
To do a Boolean/Speech Search:
- Enter the words or phrases you wish to search for.
- Note that if you enter a word not followed
by a space, then it will be treated as a prefix (i.e., searching
for the word "love" will return all occurrences of the word "love,
"
as well as "lover," "lovely," "loveless," etc.).
- If the word or phrase is followed by a space, then
only occurences of that word (or of phrases ending with precisely the
final word of the search phrase) will be returned.
- Select a Boolean operator:
- AND will return all occurrences in which both words app
ear.
- OR will return all occurrences in which either word appears
.
- BUT NOT will return all occurrences in which the first word
appears, except those in which the second word also appears.
- Enter a search expression for the name of the character whose speeches
you wish to search.
- Select one of the logical operators with which to search
the character's name: contains / doesn't
contain, starts / ends with, or is / is not.
- Enter the name (or portion of the name) of the character you
wish to search (or exclude).
- Click on the Search button.
[ To the Top || Back
to the Basic Searching Tutorial ]
Depending on the present display, you may have the option
to restrict your search to some portion of the database.
- If there is a Table of Contents displayed, or if the Book
Bag has something in it,
then the Search form offers the following
choice:
Example:
- (If this selection is not available, try going to a Table of Contents
screen as outlined above.)
- Select "Within entire database" to search all the texts in
the database.
- Select "Within checked items (book bag and table of contents)",
and check the boxes next to the desired texts, authors, or other parts
of the database,
in order to restrict the search.
Note that if you wish to do a restricted search using a different search
type than that which is offered,
the selection of "Within entire database" or "Within checked items" should
be made
before advancing to the "Other Searches" screen.
By default, searches are performed on the entire database.
The Book Bag is where you gather chunks of a database
(for example, single authors, works or time periods) for restricted
searching.
- Using the checkboxes located next to each table of contents item,
select those items which you wish to include in your search.
Example:
- Although these items will appear in the Book Bag
only after this Search Form is submitted,
the search will be restricted to all the checked items
provided that the "Within checked items" option
is selected on the Search Form.
- Note that the Book Bag will contain only the phrase "The book
bag is empty"
until after the first such restricted search is performed.
It is possible to restrict your search to any number of chunks (e.g.,
authors, texts, time periods).
The Book Bag, along with any Table of Contents items marked
since the last search,
indicate which parts of the database will be subject to the present search.
The contents of the book bag, as well as the option to search over the
entire database,
may be changed from any screen which displays a Table of Contents.
If there is no Table of Contents displayed,
for example, if you have come to the present search screen from a set
of previous search results
or from a text browse, then the choice of restricted/full-database search
is not offered.
- If you do wish to change the scope of your next restricted
search, do one of the following:
- Simple method: Use your browser's Back button to return
to some previous Table of Contents display,
then proceed with the text selection as outlined above;
or
- More involved method (which keeps you close to at least some
of your previous search results):
If you have one-line search results displayed, choose one of the results
to view
by clicking on the numbered button next to it.
Example:
This will take you to some extended context
display, such as follows:
From here, choose whichever structural level of the database is of interest
to you,
taking you back to an appropriate Table of Contents screen, where
you can
make your text selection and Book Bag change
as desired.
[ To the Top || Back
to the Basic Searching Tutorial ]
Occasionally a search will result in no, or not enough, matches.
In this case, some of the following alternative search strategies may be
appropriate:
-
Be sure that the appropriate portion of the database is included
in your search:
If you intended to search the entire database,
make sure that option "Within entire database" is checked;
otherwise, make sure that the Book Bag contains
all the texts you wish to include.
-
Try searching for a shorter phrase, or try your search word as a
prefix,
i.e., enter the search word without a space at the end.
(See instructions for Simple Search for
details.)
-
Try British spellings where they might be appropriate, e.g., for
non-American English-language texts.
-
Try archaic spellings where they might be appropriate, e.g., for
older texts.
-
Try a different kind of search.
For example, if an advanced (Boolean, Region, Proximity) searchproduces
no results,
try a Simple Search first, then use the
results as a clue for modifying the more complex search.
Too many extraneous matches can make it difficult to find the most significant
results of your search.
There are several ways to reduce the number of matches:
-
Try a restricted search if you are interested
in only a certain number of authors or texts.
-
Try searching for a longer phrase, if appropriate.
-
Search for a word rather than a prefix by adding a
space after your search argument(s).
(See the instructions for Simple Search
above).
This tactic would have eliminated, in the example above,
match #2, "to beard"
-- which would be an extraneous result if we were really searching
only for Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" speech.
Likewise, the example match of "sunken
eyes" in the previous tutorial:
This match would perhaps be extraneous if we had really wanted to
find only
the famous line, "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun."
This came from a seemingly precise Proximity
Search -- "sun" near "eyes,"
search restricted to the Sonnets -- but "sun" was entered without
a trailing space,
so it was searched as a prefix)
Often researchers have found as much of interest among the chaff
as among the supposed wheat they were seeking.
Be cautious of narrowing searches too much, and suspicious of all
search results.
-
Try a different type of search:
especially one that allows you to refine the structure in which you
search,
for example, a Region Search,
or one which includes more context than just the search expression itself,
for example, a Proximity Search or Boolean
Search.
We hope that full-text searching of our electronic texts will provide insights
into large bodies of text that would be too unwieldy for such detailed analysis
in hard copy.
The uses of electronic scholarship are perhaps almost as varied as those
of more traditional scholarship
(indeed, electronic resources are often used to support quite traditional
scholarly projects).
Searchable, full-text databases have been used as starting points for
for thinking about literature,
as tools for testing a tentative idea about a text, and as sources of
evidence to prove a point.
Further Reading. HDIS maintains a set of links to articles and Web resources
on the analysis
and delivery of electronic texts,
which may be of interest to people working in this medium.
Citation. There are emerging standards for citing electronic resources
in the humanities;
depending on your writing and publication needs, the MLA
Guidelines,
which now address the citation of World
Wide Web sources, may be a good place to start.
Each textual unit in our databases includes an "About" section
near the beginning,
which has bibliographic information about both the original source texts
and the current electronic
versions;
this information will be important for any citation, as well as for consulting
original works.
We hope you enjoy using and learning from these texts, and we appreciate
your comments.
[ To the Top || Back
to the Basic Searching Tutorial ]
Comments to HDIS
|
