Slide 1
As you begin a technical or engineering search, you must be thorough and ask yourself or your client for whom you are searching the right questions in order to obtain the most precise results. This preliminary planning can save you time and money. We recently sat down with two of our subject experts who provided us with10 Questions with Commentary to ask yourself when preparing a search for technical or engineering information.
Slide 2
Q: What are the databases in which you plan to conduct your search?
C: As you prepare your search strategy, decide whether you need a comprehensive search or whether your intent is to do a "quick query" search to locate just a few records to show the client what is available. For a comprehensive search, you may want to use the large OneSearch® categories or DIALINDEX® to search numerous databases in the same subject category at once. This search strategy provides you with databases that contain your search terms, which you can then narrow, broaden or modify to obtain the information you need.
Slide 3
Q: What type of literature or directory information does your client need? Does the client want "peer-reviewed" papers, conference papers, or trade literature? For instance, do they require directory information on research laboratories?
C: The type of information your client needs will determine which of Dialog’s 500+ databases to select. At this point, you can also select technical files like Inspec® (File 2) or Ei Compendex® (File 8) for peer-reviewed papers, Inside Conferences (File 65) for conference papers, or databases like UMB Computer Fulltext (File 647) or Cengage Gale Computer Database™ (File 275) for trade literature.
Slide 4
Q: What level of information is needed: experimental, practical or general review?
C: Some members of a newly-formed engineering team may require general review vs. theoretical material as a beginning to their research. As you delve more deeply into the topic, you may want to search databases with a more theoretical base, such as Inspec or Ei Compendex or PASCAL. When you decide on the databases to search, then you can take advantage of the indexing, including descriptors, identifiers and codes, to pinpoint the search to retrieve exactly the information your client needs.
Slide 5
Q: What is the ultimate purpose of the search? For instance, is it for a student or a manager of an engineering division?
C: Generally speaking, a technical paper that has the treatment code theoretical (e.g., TC=theoretical) may not be the best fit for an engineer with a bachelor’s degree. Thus, you need to take into consideration the engineer’s educational background, as well as your knowledge of how to search in a particular database. Get as much information from your client as possible before deciding on your search query.
Slide 6
Q: Should certain languages be excluded?
C: Dialog contains scientific and technical information in a variety of languages. Truly comprehensive searches should include all languages. Again, consider the kind of documents needed. Engineers may not be familiar with databases, but they do understand the differences between dissertations, technical reports, and conference papers. Ask your client what type of literature he or shee has heard or read about on the topic.
Slide 7
Q: What, if any, previous research has been done and by what authors, companies, and/or cited people (experts)?
C: A number of the technical and engineering databases on Dialog contain archive files. If the researcher has an excellent but old paper of interest, you can search that paper in the appropriate database(s) and use its descriptors, identifiers and other indexing like authors, cited references, and companies, to find similar papers.
Slide 8
Q: What is the timeframe: retrospective or searching our vast archives, or using the CURRENT command to limit your search to recent information?
C: Dialog has archival information useful for trend or bibliometric analysis, and you can also use specific Dialog commands such as the CURRENT command or date (PD=) and year (PY=) ranges to restrict a search to recent or older information.
Slide 9
Q: An important part of preparing a search is budget consideration. For example, does your client charge back or does the department pick up the costs?
C: There are a number of tools in Dialog that can assist you in determining cost. The Database Bluesheets provide cost for DialUnits, cost per record depending on format and costs for Alerts. During a search session a searcher can ask for costs incurred up to any point. The Subaccount tool lets searchers designate a client’s name or a department name so that the incoming invoice costs can be matched to the particular client or department. It is probably never a good idea to give the client an exact cost but providing an estimate can be helpful. And, the searcher can let the client know ahead of time how many records have resulted from a search so that cost per record can be calculated. ONTAP Practice Databases are very useful for developing your search logic. There is no cost for using these databases, and all commands work exactly the way they do in corresponding databases.
Slide 10
Q: In summary, why is it so important to plan your search before going online?
C: I would say that we all work and think better when relaxed. Creating a search on the fly online can produce unnecessary pressure. A search planned out before going online can include a number of steps: discussion with the client, researching best keywords and synonyms, determining the type of material that will best meet the query, and, of course, making sure search commands are correct in terms of Boolean operators and that all words are spelled correctly.
Slide 11
Watch for interviews with other groups at Dialog in the coming months. View an on-demand version of the interview.