Using Indexes

The indexes available for this database are listed below. Each index enables you to look up, select, and search for variations of terms listed in the database. 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 that were used to index the non-limit database fields. 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 are used 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 FT field is included in the Free Text Index.

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 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 "Center for Applied Linguistics" in the Test Author Index Field-Specific Index, you know that all occurrences of the term are as an author of a test described in the record.

The following database fields have field-specific indexes. These fields are also limit fields.

Acronym (AC)

Accession Number (AN)

Test Author (AU)

Publisher (PB)

Publication Date (PD)

Reviewer (RE)

Review Indicator (RI)

Scores (SC)

Test Name (TN)

Mental Measurements Yearbook (YB)