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© F. Dell'Orso, Bibliography Formatting Software: An Evaluation Template
Last update: September, 20, 2002
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Legend Web resources 1 Identity card 2 Installation 3 General 4 Structure 5 Input/Edit
6 Import 7 Search 8 Thesaurus
9 Output 10 Formatting language 11 Sort 12 Export
13 Manuscript formatting 14 Term/Entry list 15 Documentation

The grid's items overstriked in red have not been taken into account for the purposes of this shorter version. The numbering and the content are the same as the full version of the evaluation grid

7 Search

7.1 Different levels and approaches:
    1. easy / expert
   2. menu/command driven
   3. browsing term lists/indexes directly pointing to records
   4. query expressions
   5. browsing record list(s)
Bookends
Bookends: 1 easy,

a) by means of one preformatted window with templates for : only one field selection plus record type, scope (database, retrieved records), mode (any text, whole words, right truncation); boolean operators; up to 10 query terms;
No query expressions, no crossing of different fields: something like: "keywords = water pollution AND date = 1999" it is not possible, either you specify one field (+ RT) which will apply to all -up to 10- query terms or you do not restrict the search to a single field but do a search on all/any fields up to 10 query terms
b) browsing is possible either by selecting 'Show all references' or by using the 4 term lists: each of them will display the brief list of records connected to any entry of the selected list

7.2 Browsing indexes to search
    1. entries show number of related docs
    2. relationships (e.g. x-refs) between entries are displayed
    3. direct selection of index terms and display of related documents
Bookends: 1 3;
the 4 indexes/term lists can be browsed to display the connected records in two situations: a) "Utilities" --> Term lists; b) when --> a full reference is displayed, --> the relevant term list button is pressed --> the brief view of records connected to that entry is activated; in both cases can swiftly switch list

7.3 Query expressions
Bookends: no

7.4 Natural language queries
Bookends:

7.5 Search stragey
   1. can save and recall search expressions
   2. can recall previous queries within the same session
   3. can recall and combine previous search steps
Bookends: yes

7.6 Can save and recall search result
Bookends:

7.7 Shows hits of each search expression component
Bookends:

7.8 Can print directly one or more records while in search/browse mode
Bookends:

7.9 Refine (search in result)
Bookends: yes

7.10 Advanced search features
    1. best match, weighted terms, ranking
    2. fuzzy, sounds like
    3. hypertext-like
Bookends: no

7.11 Input allowed while indexing
Bookends:

7.12 Instant display of retrieved records
    1. short record list
    2. one record at the time
Bookends:

7.13 Highlighting search terms in result ( and * jump to next occurrence of term)
Bookends: highlight and jump only when searching within the same reference

7.14 Indexing operation
    1. automatic, real time
    2. batch
Bookends: 1 automatic

7.15 Indexing techniques
    1. any character string
    2. word by word
    3. phrase (adjacent words)
    4. marked portions of fields
Bookends:

7.16 Scope of searching
    1. one or more distinct fields
    2. cluster of fields
    3. full text = any field
    4. same occurrence
Bookends: 1 just one + RT; 3

7.17 Case sensitiveness
Bookends:

7.18 Diacritics
Bookends: "liberté" will retrieve only "liberté"; "liberte" will retrieve both "liberte" and "liberté"

7.19 Can use and nest parentheses
Bookends: n.a.: it can't nest

7.20 Priority within search operators and queries
Bookends: top most has got the priority

7.21 Boolean operators
    1. AND
    2. OR
    3. NOT (unary)
    4. AND NOT (binary)
    5. XOR
Bookends: 1 2 3 (just skip the first window and select NOT) 4

7.22 Relational operators
1 contains   
2 different <>
3 less than     <
4 less or equal    <=
5 greater than     >
6 greater or equal     >=
7 range   
8 equal
Bookends: no

7.23 Can combine boolean and relational operators
Bookends:

7.24 Truncated search (with/without wildcard, e.g. ? *)
    1. explicit or implicit
    2. right
    3. left
    4. r/l
Bookends: 1 implicit 2 3 and 4 if the 'characters' option is selected

7.25 Can search by position: b/e field and/or occurrence
Bookends:

7.26 Search for not/empty fields
Bookends: yes (empty: enter nothing, not empty: enter asterisk)

7.27 Internal wildcards ("masking" e.g. ? * : m*ss, for miss mass mess mistress ...)
Bookends: no

7.28 Can combine boolean, relational, parentheses, truncation etc.
Bookends:

7.29 Adjacency and proximity operators
Bookends:

7.30 Search only within the same occurrence of a repeatable field
Bookends:

7.31 Search only within the same paragraph
Bookends:

7.32 Stopwords
Bookends:

7.33 Z39.50 Searching
Bookends: no
Legend  
Multiple choice when choice is multiple (e.g. 1. 2. 3. etc.) number means "yes", its absence means "no: lack of the feature", unless a note states otherwise Commands menus are indicated between double quotes, specific commands within menus or selection panels are introduced by an arrow, e.g. "Edit" -> Show clipboard, means: "open the Edit menu and select Show clipboard"
A/D = ascending / descending sort order b/e = beginning / end of field or record
CDF=Comma Delimited File format db = database; dbn = database name
fn.XXX = filename + name extension FL = formatting language, i.e.: set of commands to define output styles
n: many, undefinite quantity kw = keyword
l/r = left/right n.a. = not applicable
RefID = record, or reference, identifier RN = record number
RT = reference, or document, or record type sw = software
wp = word processor x-refs = cross reference (e.g.: see, see also...)
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© F. Dell'Orso, Bibliography Formatting Software: An Evaluation Template
Last update: September, 20, 2002
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