| 1. GUIDED TOUR
A basic 10 minute guided tour that shows the major features of the database is available. Please CLICK here for more. 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 INTRODUCTION British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries provides sophisticated searching across large numbers of primary documents, as well as table of contents access to a wide array of primary sources. For novices who wish to get quick access to key documents, we recommend using the Browse Tables and the Simple Search tools. For scholars who wish to conduct in-depth searches we recommend using the Advanced Search, Diaries Search, and Letters Search tools. The search value of some of the fields in the database will not become apparent until more documents are added. 2.2 UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE There are three basic ways to use the database.
The Search tools are divided into four separate categories, all of which search the texts in the database and return documents:
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| 2.4 BROWSE TABLE NAVIGATION BAR
The Browse Tables navigation bar lets you move around the Browse Tables tools. It works in the same way as the Search Tool bar. When using these tools, the Browse Tables are expanded and the Full Text Searches are collapsed. You can toggle between the two by clicking Browse Tables or Full-Text Search. The Browse Tables are divided into six separate categories, all of which provide quick access to specific documents within the database. Browse Table
Find
2.5 NOTES ON MARK-UP CONVENTIONS Materials in the database have been transcribed using original spellings and grammar. In some documents spelling is inconsistent, even within a sentence. For more information on mark-up conventions, contact the Editor. 2.6 ABOUT THE SEARCH SOFTWARE PhiloLogic, a suite of software developed by the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago in collaboration with The University of Chicago Library's Electronic Text Services, provides sophisticated searching of a wide variety of large encoded databases on the World Wide Web. It is an easy to use, yet powerful, full-text search, retrieval, and reporting system for large multimedia databases (texts, images, sound) with the ability to handle complex text structures with extensive indexed metadata. PhiloLogic in its simplest form serves as a document retrieval or look up mechanism whereby users can search a relational database to retrieve given documents and, in some implementations, portions of texts such as acts, scenes, articles, or head-words. This same document retrieval mechanism serves as the basis for defining a corpus in a full-text search. One can, for example, either retrieve all documents in a database written by women from 1935 through 1945 or one can search for words or phrases within database which fit those criteria. The typical PhiloLogic search is broken down into five distinct stages: 1) defining a corpus (i.e. limiting a search), 2) word expansion, 3) word index searching, 4) text extraction, and 5) link resolution and formatting (e.g., SGML to HTML conversion). In other words, after defining a corpus (or one may search an entire database), one can execute a single term, phrase or proximity search. By looking up indices of the word(s) in a relational database, PhiloLogic extracts blocks of text containing the search term(s) with links to larger blocks of text. These extracts are formatted to display on a Web browser and sometimes include links to images, sound recordings, other texts, or even other databases. In addition to simple word and phrase searches, users can perform more sophisticated searches by using extended UNIX-style regular expressions for complex wildcard searching and, in some implementations, morphological and orthographic expansion. All of these mechanisms to expand words can be combined using Boolean operators such as OR (the vertical bar "|") and AND (a space) within a variety of searching contexts. Its functions were originally designed for scholarly research in databases of literary, religious, philosophical, and historical collections of texts as well as important historical encyclopedias and dictionaries. PhiloLogic handles notes so as not to interfere with phrase searching. Users can easily search words with diacritics (either by specifying accents or ignoring them by typing in uppercase) and non-Romanized scripts. At present there are some fifty databases on the Web under PhiloLogic containing languages such as ancient Greek, Latin, Hindi, and Urdu as well as nearly all Western European languages. PhiloLogic can also be set up to recognize or ignore manuscript notations such as different brackets, which can indicate spurious text or editorial emendations. Because the software recognizes typical text structures as real data objects, it understands units, such as words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages, permitting very flexible searching and retrieval of these textual objects. Other full-text engines on the market search for strings of characters. Rather than searching for two words within the same sentence or paragraph (intellectual units), other engines must search for two words within a certain number of characters regardless of sentence or paragraph. With PhiloLogic scholars always know where they are in a given text since pagination can be displayed along side other objects. Such a high degree of indexing can lead to decreases in speed, PhiloLogic indexing has been maximized such that it is still incredibly fast on the Web. For more information on PhiloLogic, contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator, The University of Chicago Library. |
| 3. FIND AUTHOR AND FIND SOURCES
3.1 FIND SOURCES The Find Sources tool lets you find all the original works in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all the sources published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society or see whether a particular edition is included. Practical Example: Find all sources that have slavery as a subject.
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Sources see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below. 3.2 FIND AUTHORS The Find Authors tool lets you find authors in the database that match your specific criteria. For example, you can find all the authors in the database that were born between 1850 and 1870. Practical Example: Find all Ministers' wives who are also mothers.
Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Authors see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below. |
| 4.2 FULL-TEXT SEARCHING
4.2.1 Full-Text Searching Full-Text Searching is when you search for specific words or phrases that occur in the texts themselves. PhiloLogic supports wildcard characters and Boolean (logical) operators, which are modeled on UNIX regular expressions to perform "pattern matching" in full-text searching. Pattern matching allows identification of a large number of words corresponding to a defined pattern. Wildcard characters can be useful, for example, in identifying cognates made obscure by affixes and vowel weakening, inconsistencies due to irregular orthography, and variations on account of word inflection as well as for discovering potential emendations for uncertain readings. The most commonly used regular expression operators (wildcard and Boolean) are listed below. 4.2.2 Wildcard Characters in Full-Text Searching
Note: If you are using wildcard characters and would like to see a full list of the words matching your search-term, then run your search as a Frequency by Author search. The results page of a Frequency by Author search lists all the terms found in a database that match your search-term. 4.2.3 Wildcards and Boolean Operators in Full-Text Searching
4.2.4 Punctuation and Full-Text Searching
4.2.5 Selecting a Search Option PhiloLogic at this time offers two kinds of searches: "Single Term and Phrase Search," which is set up as the default, and "Proximity Searching in the Same Sentence or Paragraph." One may select and deselect a search option by clicking on the "radio" buttons. For a fuller discussion see the PhiloLogic User Manual. |
| Find | Search | ||||||
| Field Name | Sources | Authors | Simple | Diaries | Letters | Advanced | |
| 1 | Age at First Childbirth: (e.g., 22 or 12-20) | x | x | ||||
| 2 | Age at Marriage: (e.g., 15 or 12-16) | x | x | ||||
| 3 | Age When Writing: (e.g., 19 or 15-20) | x | x | x | |||
| 4 | All Author Forms: (e.g., Frost, Mrs. William) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| 5 | Author: (e.g., Burr, Esther) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
| 6 | Day of Month (e.g. 1 or 2-12) | x | |||||
| 7 | Document Type | x | x | ||||
| 8 | Editor or Translator: (e.g., Gilman, Caroline) | x | |||||
| 9 | Historical Events: (e.g., Civil War) | x | x | x | |||
| 10 | Marital Status (When Writing): | x | x | x | |||
| 11 | Maternal Status (When Writing): | x | x | x | |||
| 12 | Month Written: (e.g., 1 or 1-5) | x | x | x | |||
| 13 | Nationality: (e.g., American) | x | x | ||||
| 14 | Notes: (e.g., single woman) | x | |||||
| 15 | Number of Children: (e.g., 10 or 5-13) | x | x | ||||
| 16 | Number of Marriages: (e.g., 0 or 1-3) | x | x | ||||
| 17 | Occupation: (e.g., Teacher) | x | x | x | x | ||
| 18 | Personal Events: (e.g. Death of spouse) | x | x | x | |||
| 19 | Place of Birth: (e.g., Woodstock | x | |||||
| 20 | Place of Death: (e.g., Illinois) | x | |||||
| 21 | Publisher: (e.g., Columbia Historical Society) | x | |||||
| 22 | Race: (e.g., White) | x | x | x | x | ||
| 23 | Recipient: (e.g., Adams, John) | x | |||||
| 24 | Recipient's Gender: | x | |||||
| 25 | Record Number: (e.g., S117-D003) | x | x | x | |||
| 26 | Relationship to Author: (e.g., Spouse) | x | |||||
| 27 | Religion: (e.g., Quaker) | x | x | x | x | ||
| 28 | Source Type: (e.g., Diary) | x | |||||
| 29 | Subject Headings: (e.g., Church attendance) | x | x | x | x | ||
| 30 | Subject Headings (Source): (e.g., Pioneer life) | x | |||||
| 31 | Title (Source): (e.g., Pioneer Trek from Ohio) | x | |||||
| 32 | Where Sent (Geographical): (e.g., Philadelphia) | x | |||||
| 33 | Where Written (Geographical): (e.g., Evanston) | x | x | x | |||
| 34 | Where Written (Setting): (e.g., Military camps) | x | x | x | |||
| 35 | Year of Birth: (e.g., 1790) | x | |||||
| 36 | Year of Death: (e.g., 1834) | x | |||||
| 37 | Year of Publication (Source): (e.g., 1921) | x | |||||
| 38 | Year Written: (e.g., 1865 or 1861-1865) | x | x | x | x | ||
| 5.2.28 Source Type
Description: This field indicates the type of source. How to use this field: Use this field to restrict a search to a specific type of source. It is used in the Find Sources screen. Practical Example: Find all diaries published by the Yale University Press.
Description: This is a composite field consisting of all terms in the Name Subject field, Organization Subject field, Title as Subject field, Topical Subject field, Broad Subject field, Historical Event subject field, and Geographic Subject field. How to use this field: Use this field to find a wide range of materials, including specific places, people, works of literature, and historical events. Practical Example: Find materials that discuss Shakespeare and his works.
Practical Example: Find all materials pertaining to Boston.
Practical Example: Find all materials pertaining to the Bible.
Practical Example: Find all materials about the Battle of Stono Ferry.
Note: To see what Subject Headings terms are available click on the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Subject Headings field. 5.2.30 Subject Headings (Source) Description: This field indicates subject headings for sources. How to use this field: Use this field to search for sources by subject headings. It is used in the Find Sources screen. Practical Example: Find sources that deal with Domestic matters.
Description: Use this field to find sources by title. It is a mandatory field. How to use this field: Use this field to find sources with specific words in the title. It is used in the Find Sources screen. Practical Example: Find all sources with "memoir" in the title.
5.2.32 Where Sent (Geographical) See Where Written (Geographical) |
| 6.6 NAVIGATING DOCUMENTS FROM WORD SEARCHES
In Context Display one finds several options for viewing more context around one's matched term(s). In addition to "page" and paragraph, you'll section and page. These divisions reflect the logical organization of the document from smaller parts (paragraph) to larger parts document. What each level represents depends upon the text itself. Each letter is considered to be a document, no matter how long it is. A diary is divided into paragraphs, sections (typically a day), and documents (a month of entries). For diaries with short entries you will find it easiest to view the full document. For diaries with longer entries you will find it easiest to view section by section. Any part of any level may be selected by simply clicking on it. Once a user goes to a second level of context, he/she will find the search term(s) still highlighted. One may also find the next and previous sections for each level if one should wish to "flip through" the document by sections (provided that a next or previous section exists for a given level). Notes: In PhiloLogic notes never interfere when searching the text to which they refer. Note references are linked to notes and occurrences in text from notes are linked to page references. Note and page references can be found on any level of context (e.g., Page, Paragraph, Section, Document), but not from a first-level results screen. Images: Images are displayed as both inline images and linked to images once the user pulls up any level of context (e.g., Page, Paragraph, Section, Document), but not from a first-level results screen. |
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Produced in collaboration with the University of Chicago. Send mail to Editor@AlexanderSt.com with questions or comments about this web site. Copyright © 2009 Alexander Street Press, LLC. All rights reserved. PhiloLogic Software, Copyright © 2009 The University of Chicago. |