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Controlled Term Searching
The hierarchical thesaurus is a powerful search tool and
should be used as the first step in locating possible
search terms. Scope notes enable you to identify
appropriate controlled terms for your search so that you
can locate all citations relating to a particular topic with
one search query. Use the single-term search option to
search only the selected term. Use the exploded search
option to search the selected term and all of its narrower
terms. Include related terms in your search if appropriate.
In records, single word controlled terms have a hyphen
following the term.
Links
You can focus a search by linking
terms within a subfield or sentence
using the NEAR operator. This is
useful in linking subject information
to a particular animal name to eliminate
irrelevancy if the subject is discussed
in the context of a different
animal in the same item.
Example
(panthera leo NEAR ecology-) in TP
3 5
5
Limits
Limit fields can be searched using the IN or = operators
with the field label. For limit fields containing numerical
data, note that there are other special operators you
can use.
Abstract Indicator
ai=y
ISSN
0275-2565 in is
ISBN
0471968080 in ib
Publication Year
2002 in py
py>1992
py<=1996
py=1992-1997
Language
german in la
Language of Summary french in ls
Document Type
dt=article
Accession Number
an=13803002467
Update Code
ud=200203
ud>199200
ud<=199800
ud=199700-200203
5
Example
Subject: Habitat-management
SCOPE NOTE: Management of an animal's habitat
for the preservation of natural resources. Valid for
v.128-; for v.115-127 use CONSERVATION or
narrower terms.
More general (broader) terms: Conservation measures
Related terms:
Habitat
Habitat preservation
Search Tips
Animal Names
English vernacular names for 57 broad animal groups
(e.g., Chordates, Mammals, Vertebrates) are assigned
to the Taxa Notes (TN) field. For the full list of Taxa
Notes terms, look up "Taxa Notes Terms" in the thesaurus.
Otherwise, scientific animal names are used to index
items for Zoological Record. If you don't know the
scientific name to use in your search, try a preliminary
search using a vernacular name to locate references
where the vernacular name is mentioned, and scan
the Title (TI)/Original Title (OT) and Descriptors
(DE)/Systematics (SY) fields of a few records.
Example
To find the scientific name for the woolly monkey,
search:
woolly monkey*
Systematics
The Systematics (SY) field contains a controlled
taxonomic term for each animal name; also assigned to
this field are those controlled subject terms concerned
with nomenclature and taxonomy. The sentence structure
of the field enables you to use the NEAR operator to
search very precisely for systematic information associated
with particular groups of animals.
Example
To find descriptions of new subspecies of primates,
search:
subsp-nov NEAR explode primates-
