Introduction

Because of the number of databases in Dialog, the most difficult problem is often which database to choose. This can be done through a review of the Dialog Database Catalog, looking at the Bluesheets for databases in specific subject areas, getting advice from other expert searchers, and more.

One technique for selecting databases, though, is predicated on purely on statistics. That is, often databases relevant to your search terms are the ones with the most occurences of those terms. Dialog provides a way of finding such databases.

Usage

• To find which databases have the greatest occurrence of the search terms, you want to first search DIALINDEX (File 411).
• This is a union collection of the field indexes for most DIALOG databases.
  • NOTE: It is important to remember that not all databases share the same set of fields and, therefore, indexes. This has impacts on how you search DialIndex.
• DialIndex is roughly equivalent to the "Databases" search in the DialogWeb interface.

Steps in using DialIndex

• Look at the database catalogs or online information on databases (files) to determine which are likely to be appropriate to your search.
• Write down the numbers of the databases or OneSearch categories.
• To begin your search, type:
  • b 411 (begin DialIndex)
• Then select the files to be scanned (Set Files = sf)
  • sf file#,file#,file#
  • Example: sf 1,28,149, arts
• To view banner information on the selected files, type:
  • show files
• Type the search expression.
  • Example: s internet and web
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Only use the single "s" for select. Do not use "ss" for select steps.
• This brings up a series of files, each prefixed by a number: Example: n1, n2
• Type rf (rank files) to rank the list of databases according to how many times the search terms occur in the databases.
• Select the databases that you want to search by typing the Begin Databases command " b ", followed by the numbers preceeding the databases separated by commas:
  • Example: b n1, n7, n9
• Now you can commence your searching of the databases.