Using Free Text and Field-Specific Indexes

This database contains a free text index as well as several field-specific indexes. Each index enables you to look up, select, and search for variations of terms indexed in the database. The SPIRS Help contains additional details about using indexes.

Using the Free Text Index (General Index)

The Free Text Index (General Index in WebSPIRS) contains an alphabetical list of all the terms that were used to index the database. It allows you to look up, select, and search for variations of a term. The Free Text Index is particularly useful if you are uncertain of the spelling of a term or how the terms are used in the database. Since the Free Text Index shows all terms that have been used in indexing the database, searching directly from this index will always yield results. The following database fields are included in the Free Text Index:

AB, AD, AI, ALT, CB, CRN, DS, II, IN, IS, MC, MI, MQ, NP, NT, OR, PR, RN, SO, ST, TI, TS

Using Field-Specific Indexes

Field-specific indexes are available for some database fields. Each field-specific index contains an alphabetical list of the terms occurring in an individual field. As with the Free Text Index, this allows you to look up, select, and search for variations of a term. The advantage of a field-specific index is that you know where the terms occur in the database. For example, if you look up "technical report" in the Document Type Field-Specific Index, you know that all occurrences of the term are as a document format. In addition to the Free Text Index, the following are field-specific indexes.

Abstract Indicator (AI)

Accession Number (AN)

Document Type (DT)

Language (LA)

Summary Language (LS)

Publication Year (PY)

Update Code (UD)