The Search engine used is ISYS:web which is referred to in the following information.
Advanced Searches are entered by typing in words or phrases and choosing options from a menu. Special Symbols may be used. The advanced search allows you to use the boolean and proximity operators to refine your search. At any stage you can execute the search by clicking the "Search" button.
Special Symbols * ! ~
There are a number of special symbols which change the meaning of the words entered in a query. They are:
* or !
The * or ! symbols are wildcards and can be used to search for any number of significant characters. Only one wildcard can be used per word.
The * wildcard can be used at the beginning of a word. Note that the amount of time to complete the query will increase as the position of the * moves toward the beginning of the word.
The * wildcard can also be used on its own to select all documents in the database.
HINT
If you are unsure how a word has been spelt or indexed either use an * or use the word lookup feature.
For example "voice-mail" may be indexed as two words, "voice" and "mail" or one "voicemail" or "voice-mail". To be safe use Voice* to find all variations of a word.
~
The ~ symbol activates word tense conflation. Type the ~ immediately following the word, do not include a space.
Thus manage~ would also find managing and managed if present in the database being searched.
To perform a search
Full text searching
1. Type the text you want to find into the "Full text search" box.
Note you can enter a single word or a phrase. Use the Word Lookup to check number of references or variations and sound like to select the correct word. You may use either upper or lower case characters since ISYS:web is not case sensitive. Also you can use Special Symbols in your query.
2. You can then either click "Search" to start your query on a single word or phrase, or else build a compound query by using Advanced Search Operators.
3. When you are happy with your search words, choose the "Search" button to start the query. The full text of each document will be searched.
Keyword only searching
1. Type the keyword(s) you want to find into the "Search keywords only" box.
2. You can then either click "Search" to start your query on a single keyword, or else build a compound query by using Advanced Search Operators.
3. When you are happy with your search words, choose the "Search" button to start the query. Only the Keyword Metadata of each document will be searched.
(You can use up to 16 operators in one query).
After executing your query, the ISYS:web Query Results displays the matching documents. You can then browse the documents.
The words that appear in the hit list may not exactly match the information you typed. ISYS:web Query Results will vary if word tense conflation is used.
Editing Previous Queries
You can return to the Menu-Assisted Query page after making a query, by using your Browser's Back button. If you choose this button, you will be able to step back and edit your last query.
Advanced Search Operator Reference
The Advanced Search Operators can be used on both the Advanced Search page, and the Search box on the Department of Justice homepage. You can only use the exact terms. For example, you can't use "+" or "&" instead of "AND".
The operators which can be used to specify conditional searches in the Advanced Search are:
AND
Locates documents which contain both of the entered words or phrases.
E.g. to find documents that contain "form" and which also contain "birth", your query would be:
form AND birth
OR
Locates documents which contain any one of the entered words or phrases.
E.g. to find documents that contain "authority" or which contain "declaration", your query would be:
authority OR declaration
NOT
Locates documents which contain the first word or phrase, but not the second.
E.g. to find documents that contain "record" but do not contain "expense", your query would be:
record NOT expense
// (nearby)
Locates documents where both words or phrases appear in the same paragraph.
E.g. to find documents that contain "section twelve" nearby "ruling", your query would be:
section twelve // ruling
Word LookUp
You are supplied with some options to look for words in the ISYS:web index, that start with or sound like the text you have entered.
Starts With...
To find a specific word in the Word LookUp:
1. Type the word or part of a word you want to look up in the text box provided.e.g. tax
2. Click the "Starts with" button.
3. You can then select a word in the list box. The numbers show how many times each word appears in the whole website.
4. Click the "Add to query" box to add the word to the current query box.
Sounds Like...
To find a word that sounds similar to the word you type:
1. Type the word or part of a word you want to look up in the text box provided.
e.g. aterny
2. Click the "Sounds Like" button
3. You can then select a word in the list box. The numbers show how many times each word appears in the whole website.
4. Click the "Add to query" box to add the word to the current query box.
Precedence of operators
ISYS:web will assume a precedence, that is, an order for handling multiple operators in a complex query. The default precedence is:
- Phrases
- //, TO, BEFORE, AFTER
- \\
- ..., .., AND, OR, NOT
Where a search expression, or portion of an expression, contains several operators of the same precedence, ISYS:web will process from left to right.
For example:
bonus AND manager OR supervisor
will be interpreted as find all documents that contain both bonus and manager OR those which contain supervisor.
To find documents that contain bonus and manager, OR supervisor, the query could be entered as:
manager OR supervisor AND bonus
Using Parentheses in Queries
When you enter in the current query box, you can control the order of precedence by using parentheses "( )". Just as we can use intonation in speech to clearly express a sentence that could be misinterpreted, we use parentheses to clearly express a query, overriding the ISYS:web defaults where necessary.
For example, the query:
car allowance // manager OR salesman
is interpreted using the default precedence as follows:
((car allowance) // manager) OR salesman
since the phrase car allowance has highest precedence, and the // or Near By operator has higher precedence than the OR operator.
To locate those documents containing the phrase car allowance in the same paragraph as either manager or salesman, use:
car allowance // (manager OR salesman)
Parentheses may be used anywhere sensible within a query. Examples include:
(manager OR supervisor) // bonus
the (quick OR slow) brown (fox OR kangaroo)
(manage* // (bonus OR reward) // paid) AND excess*
pet hates ... (alligator OR crocodile)
Sorting Results
On your query page you have the option to change the way the document list is sorted. The default is Number of Hits
Select the sort method by choosing the list box for the desired method followed by the "Search" button.
You have all the following options:
Number of hits
Lists documents by the number of hits. The documents with the greatest number of hits will appear first.
Relevancy
Lists documents by the density of hits (number of hits to document size ratio).
File name
Lists documents alphabetically by file name. Path names are not sorted.
Title
Lists documents according to their title, in alphabetical order. If no title is available, a document's URL is used instead.
|
Back to Top