Lookup Tool Help: Part One, Introduction

Metadata searches only draw results from titles, authors, and other information about texts and objects (i.e. from their metadata). Metadata, to be more precise, is descriptive information about something, or "structured data about data" (see the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Frequently Asked Questions). For example, a metadata search for Charles Dickens will find books (or other objects such as images) by Dickens and about Dickens, but will not find references to Charles Dickens within the texts themselves. A metadata search is what online libraries typically provide for retrieving documents from their collections. And when used with its default settings, the Perseus Lookup Tool will perform a metadata search.

Content searches, in contrast to metadata searches, draw results from the entirety of the texts in a digital library. Thus, a content search for Charles Dickens will find every reference to Charles Dickens within every text in the digital library. Although the Lookup Tool defaults to a metadata search, a content search can be performed instead by changing a single search option.

Getting Started: Quick Search

Every page of the Perseus website has a text-entry box in the upper right-hand corner. This box provides instant access to a metadata search through the default-configured Lookup Tool. Take a moment to type a few words into the box and then click on the button named "Search" or press the return key on your keyboard. After a moment, the browser window will redisplay with a list of matching objects (if any) grouped by the collections to which they belong. Each object in the result list is hyperlinked; clicking on it will retrieve and display the object in the browser window. Note, too, that the names of the collections in the results list are hyperlinked. Should you click on a collection name, your search will run again but will be restricted to that collection and the results grouped by document type. When many matching objects belong to a single group, only the first few will be listed. To list all of the matching objects in a particular group, click on the word More which appears after the last object in the group.

Lookup Tool Options: Advanced Search

The Lookup Tool provides a number of options that allow you to control what is searched and how the results are displayed. You set these options with the drop-down menus, checkboxes, and radio buttons that are clustered around the text-entry box.

Search Options

Two drop-down menus and three checkboxes control what is searched. These options work in any combination to provide maximum flexibility when customizing a search.

Search Type Drop-Down Menu

Sets the type of search (metadata or content) that the Lookup Tool will perform. With the "Perseus catalogue" option selected, the Lookup Tool will perform a metadata search. With any one of the "text" options selected, the Lookup Tool will perform a content search in the texts of the specified language. The default setting for this menu is "Perseus catalogue." If particular texts are selected for searching, the default setting for this menu is "English text." See Searching in Greek and Latin for guidelines on searching texts of these languages.
Collection Drop-Down Menu

To restrict your search to a particular collection in the Perseus Digital Library, select that collection's name from the drop-down menu to the right of the Search Type menu. The default setting for this menu is "Any collection," which directs the Lookup Tool to search every collection.
"Only exact matches" Checkbox

Check this option to restrict your results to those that contain all of the words exactly as typed into the text-entry box. Do not check this option if you want to include results that contain any one or more of the words typed into the text-entry box. Enabling this option has the potential to omit relevant material from your results. This box is not checked by default.
"Alternate names" Checkbox

Check this option to include synonymous names in your search automatically. This option only affects searches for Greek and Roman materials. This box is checked by default.
"Include external sites" Checkbox

Check this option to include results from repositories maintained by other institutions participating in the Open Archives Initiative. This option only affects metadata searches; the contents of documents held by other institutions cannot be searched. This box is checked by default.

Result Options

Five radio buttons control how search results are displayed. Only one option may be active at a time.

"Single list" Radio Button

Select this option to display search results in a single list.
"Document type" Radio Button

Select this option to display results from a metadata search grouped by their document type (the results from a content search will display in a single list). The document types returned by a metadata search include:

art object

atlas site

CAD model

image

QuickTime movie

QuickTime object

QuickTime panorama

reference article

source citation

text

text section

VRML world

The art object and image group headings are coupled to "Thumbnails" buttons which, when clicked, open a display of small images that preview the contents of their groups. The atlas site group heading is coupled to a "Plot all" button which, when clicked, opens a map display plotted with all of the sites listed in the group.
"Collection" Radio Button

Select this option to display search results grouped by the Perseus collections (or Open Archive Initiative repositories) to which they belong. Clicking a particular collection heading runs the search again but restricts the search to that collection and groups the results by document type.
"Matching field" Radio Button

Select this option to display results from a metadata search grouped by the Perseus metadata field in which the match was found (the results from a content search will display in a single list). This method of grouping is useful to distinguish between objects that are about a place and objects that are from a place.
"Author/title" Radio Button

Select this option to display search results grouped by author and title. The groups are sorted alphabetically, first by author then by title.
"Dynamic clustering" Radio Button

Select this option to display search results grouped by common phrases and sorted by relevance. Setting this option instructs the Lookup Tool to identify similarities, where similarity is calculated by comparing the phrases in which the search term(s) are found. The comparison distinguishes clusters of results that share a common phrase. The search results are then grouped by cluster and ranked according to a relevance number (printed at the end of each result). The relevance number is calculated by the Lookup Tool. The relevance number for clusters increases with their size and for phrases with their length. This method of grouping is useful to identify different forms of a term and to discover different topics associated with a term.

Searching Greek and Latin texts

When performing a Greek text content search, the Lookup Tool expects the Greek query words to be typed using the same mode that is used to display Greek text. By default, Greek texts in the Perseus Digital Library are displayed using Latin transliteration. Consequently, by default, the Lookup Tool expects words submitted in a Greek text content search to have been typed using Latin transliteration. Several other display modes are also available for Greek texts. Any one mode can be activated by selecting the appropriate option in the Perseus Display Configuration. These display options are accessible on every Perseus web page through the "Configure display" link located in the top bar. Changing the display configuration also changes the mode that the Lookup Tool expects for text entry.

The Lookup Tool includes an assistant for entering Greek words that are to be used in a Greek text content search. Clicking the "Enter Text in Greek" link beside the "Search" button opens a window with a keypad for selecting Greek letters, accents, and breathing marks (accents should be typed after the corresponding letter, breathing marks before). When a key is clicked, the corresponding letter or mark is entered in the Lookup Tool text-entry box as correctly formatted Beta code. Greek text queries formatted in Beta code may be submitted regardless of the mode being used to display Greek text and despite the Lookup Tool's expectations.

Latin text content searches are not case sensitive, but content searches in Greek are. To search for a proper name or other capitalized word in a Greek text, the first letter must be capitalized. Also, if Beta code is the active setting for Greek text display, an asterisk must be placed before the letter to be capitalized and before the breathing mark if any. Note that the Lookup Tool's Greek text assistant will incorrectly place a capitalization asterisk after a smooth or rough breathing mark. When this occurs, the asterisk will have to be moved before the mark for the search to be successful.

When performing either a Greek text or a Latin text content search, the Lookup Tool defaults to a lemmatized search (i.e. it will parse inflected Greek and Latin query words). The search results will include sentences that contain words derived from the same lexical forms as the query words. For example, entering pempousi and aggelon as Greek search terms will retrieve every sentence in Perseus that contains words derived from either pempô or aggelos. To limit results to the query words as typed, enclose the words in quotation marks. Entering "tempora mores" as Latin search terms will only retrieve sentences that contain those forms.

Please note that the Lookup Tool is a tool for searching the content of Greek and Latin texts in the Perseus Digital Library. It is not a tool for translating phrases written in either language. Please see our FAQ entry for more information about translating common Greek and Latin phrases.

Revised 5 November, 2002

Lookup Tool Help: Part One, Introduction

Contents:

Metadata Searches vs. Content Searches

Getting Started: Quick Search

Lookup Tool Options: Advanced Search

Search Options

Result Options

Searching Greek and Latin texts