Using Indexes

The indexes available for this database appear below. Each index enables you to look up, select, and search for variations of a term. Refer to the SPIRS Help for specific information about using indexes.

Using the Free Text Index (General Index)

The Free Text Index (General Index in WebSPIRS) contains an alphabetical list of terms used to index the database. It excludes terms that occur in the limit fields as well as terms indexed in the field-specific indexes. The Free Text Index allows you to look up, select, and search for variations of a term. It is particularly useful if you are uncertain of the spelling of a term or how the terms occur in the database. Since the Free Text Index shows terms 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:

AU, DE, NT, PB, SE, SO, TI

Using Field-Specific Indexes

Field-specific indexes are available for some database fields. Each field-specific index contains an alphabetical list of the terms appearing in an individual field. As with the Free Text Index, this enables 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 appear in the database. For example, if you look up "smith" in the Author(s) Index Field-Specific Index, you know that all occurrences of the term are as the creator of the original document.

The following database fields have field-specific indexes.

Accession Number (AN)

Author(s) Index (AUI)

Descriptor Subfields (DSF)

International Standard Book Number (IB)

International Standard Serial Number (IS)

Journal Name Index (JN)

Language (LA)

Publication Type (PT)

Publication Year (PY)

Subject Author Index (SAUI)

Sequence Number (SQ)

Update Code (UD)

URLs, Etc. (XURL)