Searching DIALOGWEB: The Step-by-Step Process

Develop your search strategy

• Before going on Dialog at all, be sure to develop your search strategy offline.
• Directions on how to do this are on the Searching Dialog: A Step-by-Step Search Strategy web page.

Important: Pause, Logout, Logout Hold, Save Temp

• pause - Generally, you do not want to use this in DialogWeb because of its effect on the display. If you are accessing Dialog via Telnet, do this if you expect it will take you no more than about 30 seconds to revise your search or review some records.
• logout - In any version of Dialog, use this to exit Dialog if it is going to take you more than about a minute to revise your search or review some records
• logout hold - This command will hold your results for up to 30 minutes if you have exit Dialog to do some serious thinking about your search but expect to come back to it.
• save temp - Do this if you want to save a search for up to 7 days.
  • Save it as a 1-6 letter name that you should note down.
  • The search an be re-executed and reviewed later with the exs command.

Connect to DialogWeb

• Go to the URL: http://www.dialogweb.com

Logon

• Enter the User ID and Password and click on.

Selecting the Search Mode

• Normally, logging in will take you to the Guided Search mode. You can tell which mode you are in by looking under the DialogWeb logo in the upper-left corner of the screen.
• I recommend that you use the Command Search mode. To do this click on "Go to Command Search" in the lower part of the blue column on the right side of the screen.
• Click on .
• You are now in Command Search mode. Again, you can tell which mode you are in by looking under the DialogWeb logo in the upper-left corner of the screen.

Finding the databases that you want - Narrowing by broad category

• NOTE: There are several ways to find the databases that you want. These include:
  • Dialog Database Catalog
    • This is both in print (at the Circulation Desk) and online.
    • Review database descriptions.
    • Look at the OneSearch categories to find the names of related databases.
  • Dialog Bluesheets
    • There are set of these at the reference desk.
    • They are also available online.
• Click on Databases
  • This will enable you to browse and search databases to find the best databases for your topicat no charge.
  • It will take you to the "All Categories" search page.
  • Select the broad Category that is most relevant to your search. These are analogous to broad OneSearch categories.
  • You can now narrow that category to one of the subcategories that are displayed by clicking on that subcategory (narrower OneSearch categories).

Finding the databases that you want - Selection by "DialIndex" searching

• Once you have found a broad category, you can narrow your search to individual, appropriate databases by doing a "DialIndex" search.
• In the field under "To search the database index, enter your search terms and click Search," type in your search, BUT only use the "s" search command. DO NOT use "ss"
  • Example: s walt(w)whitman and thoreau
• Click on the "bullet" to the left of either:
  • The database category you selected.
  • "Search all Dialog Databases"
• Click on
• Dialog will now search through all of the databases that you have selected for the occurrence of the words and/or phrases that you you are looking for. This may take some time depending on how many databases are being searched.

Finding the databases that you want - "Dialog Index Results"

• When your DialIndex search is completed, you will have a list of databases that include for each one:
  • The File number (in order).
  • The Database Name
  • The number of "Hits" or records in that database that have content that matches your search statement.
• At the bottom of the page will be a statement of how many databases are listed that have content that matches your search statement.
  • Example: "There are 116 databases matching your statement
    'S WALT()WHITMAN AND THOREAU'."

Sorting and selecting individual databases

• Click on the button to sort the databases by the number of relevant records that were found in each database.
• Now, you have two choices on choosing databases to actually search with your search stateent:
  • Click on the "checkbox" to the left of each database that you want to search.
    • I would choose databases in which you have a lot of results.
    • I would also choose databases whose names or contents are specifically relevant to your information need. For example, "File 436: Wilson Humanities Abstracts Full Text" is likely to be contain relevant information on Whitman and Thoreau.
    • Then click on
  • Click on to search all the databases in your results.
• Click on .

Beginning the searching the database contents

• A new "Command" "frame" will appear at the bottom of your browser window. It will contain the letter "b" (for begin) followed by the numbers of the databases that you selected.
  • Example: b 484,88,436,47,141,631,781,146,38,35,715,15,37
• Click on .
• The new "Begin Databases" page may have notes on databases that are not available to you for any of several reasons. Ignore the notes.
• In the bottom "Command" "frame", enter your search using the "select steps" command "ss"
  • Example: ss walt(w)whitman and thoreau
• Click on .

Results of your search

• Your search will bring up a display similar to the following:
• You can now click on the button to the right of the results to see some of the records:
  • Leave the Format on or select another format depending:
    • How many records you have.
    • How much information you need from the record.
    • If you have identified a relevant record for which you need the full text.
  • Set the Number of Records to be displayed on one page to the maximum as a general rule.

Narrowing your search - Additional searches.

• If your search involves searching with search statements, then continue on with your additional searches in the databases you have selected.
• Example: Since I am looking for information about a meeting of Whitman and Thoreau in Brooklyn, NY, I may enter the following search in the field to the right of Command.
  • ss (meeting or apartment) and (new(w)york or brooklyn)
• Result:

  

Narrowing your search - Combining sets

• You can now combine sets (the S#'s on the left) of results to narrow your search further to, hopefully, relevant records.
• When you are combining sets, use the select "s" command, NOT the select steps "ss" command.
• Example: I may enter the following search in the field to the right of Command:
  • s s5 and s12
  • If I suspect that the names might occur close (in either direction) to the words in s12, I might enter the following instead:
    • s s5 (10n) s12
• Result:

Displaying results of your search

• You have several choices for displaying your work. Use the Format pull-down menu to select which format.

  .

  • Select "Free" just to get a general idea of the records. Free will display the Title and Indexing. This is recommended as your first Display step.
  • Select "KWIC" (Key Word in Context) to see your search words displayed with the context of surrounding text.
  • Select "Full" if you have narrowed your results to a few, very likely candidate records.
• Selecting one(s) to display in Full format.
  • Click on the checkbox to the left of each one you want to see in Full (or other) format.
  • Click on the Format menu, then click on the Full format.
  • Click on .

  

Printing/Displaying the Full record

• After reviewing the records in the Full format, select one(s) to Print./Save in Full format.
  • Click on the checkbox to the left of each one you want print or save.
  • Click on.
  • This will print up the record(s) in a separate window.
  • You can now
    • Use your browser's Print button/command to print the record.
    • Use the Save command to save the record to disk.
• Alternative methods for printing or saving the record:
  • Copy and Paste:
    • Highlight the record or part of the record that you want to save.
    • Copying that record or text to a Word document.
  • Print the record in its Frame
    • Click on the Frame that contains the record. (Remember that the Dialog screen showing records is divided into three parts: 1) Logo and button bar at top. 2) Results and record display section in the middle. 3) Command submission frame at the bottom.)
    • Click on the Print Frame command under the File menu.

Analyze the Results

• Do the returned records provide the desired information?
• If not, review your search in terms of terms, functions, operators, and way that language structure and words are likely to be used for the subject you are trying to find information on.
• To look at your previous searches, type "ds" in the Command field at the bottom of the screen, then click on .
• Redo the search as needed.

Logout

• Look at the screen for the cost of the search
• Multiply it by 15 times to get a rough idea of the true cost of your Dialog search.

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