PANDAS Manual

Searching PANDAS

• Introduction to Searching PANDAS
• Constructing Searches
• Keyword Searching
• Alphabetic Searching
• Boolean Searching
• Case Sensitive Searching
• Previous Search List
• Specific Types of Searches

Introduction to Searching PANDAS

PANDAS has a single search screen for all search options. From this screen in the Search Parameters window you construct your search statement including which type of record you wish to search for, which data field within the record you wish to search on and the search term(s) you wish to use. Your previous searches are listed in a drop-down box which allows you to easily select and re-run your searches.

NB: The search screen is also where you begin the process of creating (registering) new records on PANDAS.

To start searching select Search from the Main Menu screen. This will open the Search PANDAS screen. The Search PANDAS screen is made up of a title bar, the Search Parameters window and (after you have initiated a search) the search Results window.

Search PANDAS Screen

The drop-down box at the bottom of screen to the left of the Search button is where you will find your previous searches listed. If you click on the arrowhead to the left of this box you will reveal the tick box and radio buttons that allow you to set additional search parameters including whether you want your search to be a keyword, alphabetical or boolean search and whether it should be case sensitive or case insensitive (The default search is a case insensitive keyword search). Click on the arrow head to toggle between the additional search parameters and the previous searches list.

Constructing Searches

To construct a search phrase:

1. Select the type of records you want to search, i.e. Title, Indexer, Publisher or Collection. To do this choose the option you want from the first drop down box (labelled "Search"). The default search is for "Title" records.
2. Select the data field by which you wish to search for the records. For example, PI, Publisher, Subject. To do this select an option from the second drop down box (labelled "for").
3. Type the search term in the box labelled "using", or, for some options, select the term from the drop-down that will appear after you have selected the data field.
4. Click on the Search button or use the keyboard shortcut Alt+S.

The screen below shows an example of a search (including results) for publisher records which are linked to titles containing the word "outback". In this search, clicking on the results will take you to the publisher record (not the title record even if you click on the title).

Table of searchable data fields for each record type

Additional Search Parameters

To select additional search parameters firstly you will need to reveal the options by clicking on the black arrowhead (see above).

Keyword Searching

To use keyword searching switch on the Keyword radio button on the Search Parameters window.

When searching by keyword enter either a single keyword or a phrase in the search box. You can only search on a single word or words that appear consecutively as a phrase; however the word or phrase may appear anywhere in the title or name of the record.

NB: Words can be any string of characters, e.g. "ournal of t" will retrieve titles which include the words "journal of the".

Alphabetical Searching

To use alphabetical searching switch on the Alphabetic radio button on the Search Parameters window.

Alphabetical searching allows you to search on the first words of a title etc. in the direct order in which they occur. The system searches letter by letter so you do not need to type in the whole word. e.g. "digital", or "digi", or "online jour".

Boolean Searching

PANDAS supports boolean searching for AND and OR operators. (NB: You cannot use the boolean operator NOT.)

To use boolean searching switch on the Boolean radio button on the Search Parameters window.

Boolean operators must be in uppercase characters. The AND operator is optional, e.g. "cat dog" is the same as "cat AND dog". If you include "and" or "or" in lowercase they will be included as search terms. If you want to include a string as a search term, enclose it in double quotation marks, e.g. cattle AND "australian wheat".

Case Sensitive Searching

To use case sensitive searching make sure that the Case insensitive tick box is not ticked on the Search Parameters window.

Previous Searches

You can repeat a search you have already done by selecting it from the previous search drop-down box located at the bottom of the Search Parameters window. If the previous searches drop-down box is not visible click on the arrowhead . Selecting a search from the drop-down box will automatically activate the search.

The entries in the previous search drop-down box provide an abbreviated description of the search parameters and the search term(s) used. This description includes the type of records searched, the field searched and codes indicating whether the search was case sensitive or insensitive and if the search is a keyword, alphabetic or boolean search. These codes appear as follows:

"ci" for case insensitive search
"nc" for not case insensitive search
"k" for keyword search
"a" for alphabetic search
"b" for boolean search

For example the following phrase would appear in the previous search list for a search on the title name "animist" using a case insensitive keyword search:

[Title/Name/ci/k] using "animist"

The Search Results Window

When a search has been run the search Results window displays below the Search Parameters window.

The total number of results will display on the Results window title bar. Depending on what sort of search you conduct, the details displayed may differ. A search on title records will display the PI, the Title Name (both of which are links to title record) and an icon indicating the current status.

If there are more search results than can fit on one screen (see example below) you can navigate through the search results by selecting the page number of the search results or by clicking the forward or back arrows. Both of these options appear at the top and the bottom of the Results window. You can also change the number of results listed on the page from between 10 and 100 by selecting this option from the Numbers per page box.

Filtering search results

You can perform a further refinement of your search by entering a term in the Filter Results box (located at the bottom of the Results window) and clicking the Submit button. To re-display all the results of your original search select Show All .

Sorting search results

Search results can be sorted by clicking on the arrow head next to each field in the Results window. For example a list of titles can be sorted by PI resulting in their display from oldest to most recent PI.

Some Specific Types of Searches

Searching by Persistent Identifier (PI)

The Persistent Identifier (PI) is the unique number automatically assigned to title records by PANDAS.

You can search for Title, Publisher, Indexer and Collection records by the title PI. To do this, construct your search selecting PI from the data fields selection box on the Search Parameters window.

To search for a single PI enter the PI in the search box and click the Search button or Alt+S.

You can search for more than one PI at the same time by entering all the PIs you want in the search box separated by a space, e.g. 10100 14068 10233.

You can also search for all PIs greater than or less than a given number. To do this precede the PI with the greater than > or less than < symbols (without a space between the symbol and the PI), e.g. >10100.

Lastly you can also search for a range of PIs by entering a start PI and end PI for the range, separated by a hyphen, e.g. 10000 - 10012 will retrieve PIs 10004 thru 10012.

Searching by Registration Date

The Registration Date is the date the title record was first added to PANDAS.

You can only search for Title records by Registration Date. To do the search select "Reg Date" from the data fields selection box and the Search Parameters window will change to allow you to enter dates.

The Registration Date search option allows you to search for titles added to PANDAS on a specific date or between a range of dates.

To search for titles registered on a single date enter the date in the box labelled "From" and click Search or Alt+S. Enter both the day and month as one or two digits (e.g. July = 7, December = 12) depending on the date but the year must be entered in its full four digit form, i.e. 2001 not 01.

To search for titles registered on PANDAS over a range of dates, enter the first date in the range in the "From" date boxes and the last date in the range in the "to date" boxes.

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Last updated 31 May 2002