ADCIS Directory Help - Search Basics

Introduction

Search Basics

Introduction
How to Build searches in the Exact Phrase boxes
AND (find ALL)
OR (find ANY)
NOT
Proximity Searches
Truncation

Name Search

Subject Search

Area Search

Cross-Search

Browse List

Feedback

To search the ADCIS Directory type (or paste from the Browse Lists) information into one or more of the query boxes on the Search page, and click on the SEARCH button.

For details on which query box or boxes to use, have a look at the help sections on each: Name Search, Subject Search, Area Search, and Cross-Search.

If you put information into more than one box, results must satisfy all of the criteria.

To clear the search boxes, click on the Clear Form button.

How Build your own Search using the "Exact Phrase" Search Boxes

Normally, a search will look for exact matches of text entered into any of the "Exact Phrase" search boxes. Thus, if you type in more than one word, they will be treated as a Phrase. That means the search will seek all of the words that have been entered, and it will look for them occurring in precisely the same order as you have entered them.

This is useful if you have pasted a name or subject heading, for example, from one of the Browse Lists.

You can also build your own searches using these boxes. To look for more than one word (or phrase) without them all being read as a single phrase, separate each with one of the following operators that specify how they should be handled in the search:

&     [AND]     find ALL words (or phrases) entered
                        - limits a search

/    [OR]    find ANY words (or phrases) entered
                        - expands a search

In summary, the primary options for entering information are as in the following examples:

community health

a phrase (those words, in that order)

community / health

either word (or both)

community & health

items that contain both words
(items that contain just one of the words will be ignored)

The AND and OR options are explained in more detail below. In addition, there also NOT, which can be used to exclude records that include specified words. You can also find records that have words appearing near to each other using proximity operators.

To find records containing a number of given words (or phrases) in a field (such as Name), but not necessarily in any specific order, separate each with an & (ampersand).

For example, the Name search:

Name
information service & aged

will find any organisation with the word "aged" and the phrase "information service" in its name, such as:

aged and disability care information service

The search:

Name
bruny & community

will find any organisation with the word "bruny" and the word "community" in its name, such as the following:

Bruny Island Community Health Centre
Bruny Island Respite Community House

Adding further criteria will make the request more specific, and narrow the search. Thus:

Name
bruny & community & respite

specifies more conditions that need to be met and will narrow the search results further. It will find any organisation with all the requested words ("bruny", "community" and "respite") in its name:

Bruny Island Respite Community House

While placing an "&" between words or phrases will make a search more specific, and narrow the results, the OR operator will allow a greater number of possible matches and broaden a search.

In order to find a number of different things at once, separate each with a / (forward slash).

For example, the Name search:

Name
information service / aged

will find any organisation with either the word "aged" OR the phrase "information service" in its name, including the following:

Aged Care Assessment Team
Aged Care Complaints Resolution Scheme
Community Aged Care Packages
Corumbene Nursing Home for the Aged Inc.
Commonwealth Regional Information Service
Women's Health Information Service

It will also include any organisation with both the word "aged" and the phrase "information service" in its name, such as:

aged and disability care information service

Note: the two words "information" and "service" have been entered together as a phrase, and an exact match for "information service" will be sought. If they were also separated by OR ( / ), then the search would find any organisation with either the word "aged" OR the word "information" OR the word "service" in its name. The results would be much broader ranging, including the records above and others such as:

Anglicare Tasmania Inc. : Financial Counselling Service
Hobart District Nursing Service Inc.
Centrelink : Freedom of Information
National Information Communication Awareness Network

Not, entered as "!" (exclamation mark) excludes records from the search results.

For example, the Name search:

Name
Health and Human Services Tasmania ! Hospitals and Ambulance Service Division

will find all of the records in the directory dealing with the Department of Health and Human Services Tasmania excluding those that relate to its "Hospitals and Ambulance Service Division".

Use proximity operators, the letter "W" followed by a number, to find one word within a certain distance of another word.

For example, the Cross-Search:

bone w5 regist*

will look for any occurrences of “bone” within 5 words (before or after) of a word starting “regist” (eg register, registry).

Only use words in searches of this kind: you cannot include phrases (as in: bone marrow w5 regist*) in proximity searches.

Use the truncation symbol (*) to find words or phrases that start with certain letters. For example, the search:

Cross-search
companion*

will look for any word starting with "companion", including the following:

Companion Clubs

Social activities, companionship and entertainment

... offers regular 6-week training courses for "Grief Companions".