Browsing
Browsing is a good way to access documents if you don't have a specific idea of what you're looking for. There are several ways to browse the repository: by author or creator; by school, Division or Department; by year and by subject. If you wish to find out about research undertaken in the local area then you may also browse by topic within Northamptonshire and East Midlands.
To browse the repository either select Browse from the front page or from the navigation bar at the top of the screen. Then choose which property you wish to browse by eg. "subject".
You will be presented with a list of possible values, select one of these, and you will be given a list of references to documents in the repository (if any) which match this value. To access a paper, simply click on its reference in the display.
On the abstract page, you should be able to see what subjects are pertinent to the current document. Clicking on one of those subjects will take you back to the relevant browse by subject view.
Searching
The repository offers two levels of searching, simple and advanced. They are similar, but the advanced form lets you perform a finer-grained search using more fields. Access the simple search using the Search NECTAR link on the front page, or using the navigation bar at the top of the screen. To perform an advanced search, use the advanced search link in the menu bar on the left.
Text Search Fields
These are used to search fields like abstract or creator. These are the fields where there is a text entry area, and a popup menu just to the left of it. Type your search terms into the box. You can decide how the system will use your search terms by selecting one of the options from the popup menu just to the leftt of the input box.
All of.
If you select this option a record must have all the values you choose associated with it to be retrieved.
Any of.
If this is selected, any record which has any of the values you select will be retrieved.
Lists of Values
With these you can select one or more values from a list of values for the system to search for. To select more than one value, hold down the Ctrl key whilst left clicking on each value. If no value in the list is selected, the system will ignore this field (i.e. it will retrieve records with any value of this field.)
In cases where each individual record may have more than one value attached to the list, you can also change search behaviour by selecting ``Any of these'' or ``All of these'' from the popup menu on the right of the list.
Any of these.
If this is selected, any record which has any of the values you select will be retrieved.
All of these.
If you select this option, a record must have all the values you choose associated with it to be retrieved.
Years/Date
When you're searching a date field, you can specify a single year or range of years that you're interested in:
- 1999
- retrieves only records where the year is `1999';
- 1987-1990
- retrieves records with years between 1987 and 1990 inclusive;
- 1995-
- retrieves records with years of 1995 or later;
- -1998
- retrieves records with years up to and including 1998.
Yes/No Fields
Some fields can have the value yes or no, for example the ``Refereed'' field. In this case, the search field lets you specify whether you want retrieved records to have the value yes or no for this field, or whether you have no preference, in which case the field isn't used to find records.