Lookup Tool Help: Part Two, Illustrated Sample Searches

Contents:

• Sample Search 1. Basic Searching (Metadata Search)
• Sample Search 2. Advanced Searching (Content Search)

[Note: In all search examples, italicization designates what has been entered in the Lookup Tool text-entry box. This is for the sake of clarity: italicization is not necessary to enter a search term.]

Sample Search 1. Basic Searching (Metadata Search): Search for Aphrodite

1. Enter Aphrodite or aphrodite into any Lookup Tool text-entry box. Capitalization does not matter. Click the button named "Search" or hit the "return" key on your keyboard to submit your search.
2. Note the results.
3. In this example, the default settings apart from "include external sites" are active. You see a list of 444 results that reference the Greek goddess Aphrodite or her alternate names in their metadata. The results have been drawn from all local collections and grouped by collection name. A summary of the results appears in the list's top right-hand corner. Had the "include external sites" box been checked, as it is by default, the search would also have returned results from repositories maintained by other institutions participating in the Open Archives Initiative. Note that only the first three items of each group are displayed. This speeds the download of your search results and reduces clutter in the result list. If you wish to expand a particular group, simply click the blue triangle or the word More to toggle the display as shown here:
4. Depending on the nature of your search, you may want to change the default result display options. In the following example, the default option to group results by "collection" is changed so that results will be grouped by "document type" instead. The search option to "include external sites" is turned off as before.
   
5. Note the results.
6. You see the same 444 documents but now displayed in groups determined by their types. When a result is an image, a thumbnail preview is included in its listing. If you wish to see all of the thumbnails available for a particular document type, just click the "Thumbnails" button next to the heading for that document type.

Sample Search 2. Advanced Searching (Content Search): Search for griffin

As noted in part one of Lookup Tool Help, there is an important difference between searching metadata and searching content. The first sample search is a metadata search, the type of search which the Lookup Tool performs by default. The results consist of documents that reference Aphrodite in their metadata. The results do not include documents that reference Aphrodite in their content, unless of course a reference also appears in their metadata. To find every reference to a query item in the entire contents of the Perseus Digital Library's text holdings, perform a content search. Also use a content search to find every reference to a query item in a particular text or group of texts. The following sample search will do both.

1. Access the Lookup Tool and change the default setting in the Search Type drop-down menu from "Perseus catalogue" to any one of the text options. The text option tells the Lookup Tool what language to search. For this sample search, select "English text" from the list to direct the Lookup Tool to search for the query item in the contents of every English-language text held in the Perseus Digital Library. Uncheck the "include external sites" box (checked "on" by default); content searches cannot be performed on documents held by other institutions. Leave the remaining search and display options in their default states. You may wish to change these options, however, when performing your own searches. Now enter griffin in the text-entry box and click the button named "Search" or hit the "return" key on your keyboard to submit your search.
2. Note the results.
3. You see a list of over 1000 matches in 8 collections. The results have been drawn from all local collections and grouped by collection name. A summary of the results appears in the list's top right-hand corner. To repeat the search, but with a focus on a particular collection, click on the name of the collection in the results list. To view any one citation in the results list, click on the text to the right of the citation's list number.
4. It is also possible to restrict your content search to a particular text or group of texts. To illustrate this, we will perform our sample search again but now restrict its scope to the works of Thomas Allen. Access the Lookup Tool and begin the search by clicking the button named "Select" as shown here:
5. A version of the Perseus Table of Contents appears as below with a check list of every English-language text in the Perseus Digital Library. When performing your own searches, you may need to change to a check list of texts written in a language other than English (e.g. to search the content of texts written by ancient Greek authors). To do so, click the "Change displayed items" link to move to the display options box at the end of the check list. The "Language" drop-down menu of this options box will be set to "English" by default. Select the language of the texts to be searched from the drop-down menu and click on the button named "Change." A new check list will appear containing every text in the Perseus Digital Library written in the selected language.
   
   Continuing our sample search, scroll the window with the English-language text check list until you find the works of Thomas Allen (alternatively, you can use your browser's "find" command to jump to the author).
   
   
   
6. Click the appropriate check boxes to select the texts to search. For this sample search, select all four volumes written by Thomas Allen as shown below. Then click either of the two buttons named "Select" (there is one at the top and bottom of the check list) to confirm the selected texts and return to the Lookup Tool.
   
   
   
7. Back in the Lookup Tool, you will find that the text option has automatically changed from "Perseus catalogue" (i.e. a metadata search) to "English text" (i.e. a content search). You will also find that the number of texts selected is displayed trailing the search option check boxes. Uncheck the "include external sites" box (checked "on" by default); content searches cannot be performed on documents held by other institutions. Leave the remaining search and display options in their default states. You may wish to change these options, however, when performing your own searches. Now enter griffin in the text-entry box and click the button named "Search" or hit the "return" key on your keyboard to submit your search.
8. Note the results.
9. You see a list of 5 matches found in the contents of the four texts selected for searching. A summary of the results appears in the list's top right-hand corner. To view any one citation in the results list, click on the text to the right of the citation's list number.

Revised 5 November, 2002