Search
Boolean Search capability
Concept Search
Concept searching is done by entering a simple query describing your area of interest. In a concept search, PL first generates a list of terms that are statistically related to the words in your query. The concept search operation then performs a conventional search using the original words as well as the related terms. You will find that many of the records retrieved, while perhaps not having occurrences in your original query words, will nonetheless contain information that is relevant to your search interest.
Advisors
You can think of Personal Librarian's advisors as on-line over-the-shoulder assistants. In addition to giving you added insight into the nature of a database's contents, they provide you with powerful tools for boosting the effectiveness of your feedback searching activities.
You can:
View a database's dictionary
Find words related to your query
Identify words with similar spelling with fuzzy matching
Dictionary Advisor
When you use the Dictionary Advisor, it displays an alphabetical listing of all unique terms in the active database. Along with each index entry is a posting number, indicating the number of times the word occurs within the database.
Relate Advisor
You can use the relate advisor to identify potentially valuable query words that might not immediately come to mind. It generates, on-the-fly, a list of words in the current database that are statistically related to the words in your query. Words are deemed related if they exhibit a significant degree of co-occurrence within records.
Fuzzy Match Advisor
You can identify words in the database that have spellings similar to the first word you have entered in the Search Window. This can be helpful in finding word variants or misspellings in a database.
For a more detailed explanation -- see the PLS Help
Return to Windows search screen.