Search Tips

This section provides tips on performing effective searches.

Performing a Search
Performing an Advanced Search
Searching with Parts of Words
Using Punctuation in Searches
Refining Your Search
Interpreting Your Search Results
Frequently Asked Questions

Performing a Search

The TB Materials Search box is located at the top of all pages of the Website.
In the Search box, enter the word or words that describe your topic. For example, if you are searching for summaries of materials relating to DOTS, type DOTS in the Search field.
Click Search.

Performing an Advanced Search

From any page of the Website , click Search TB Materials. The Advanced Search screen appears.
The table below describes the fields on the Advanced Search screen. You may use one, several, or all fields on the screen to conduct your search.


Search All Text	Use this field to search for any word, phrase, numerical sequence, or abbreviation anywhere in the entire database. If you are not sure if a word or phrase would appear in the title of a document, the abstract, or elsewhere, enter it in this field. To search for specific phrases, enclose the words in quotations. Words enclosed in quotations will appear together in the results exactly as you have entered them in the search field. Under this field are two buttons that help define your search. To conduct a narrower, more specific search, select all the words. To conduct a broader search, select at least one of the words. Example: To search for materials about skin testing procedures, enter "skin testing" procedures and select all the words.

Title	Use this field to search for materials with specific words in their titles. To search for exact phrasing of a title, enclose the phrase in quotations. Words enclosed in quotations will appear together in the results exactly as you have entered them in the search field. Under this field are two buttons that help define your search. To conduct a narrower, more specific search, select all the words. To conduct a broader search, select at least one of the words. Example: To search for materials with TB treatment in the title, enter "TB treatment" and select all the words.

Topic	Use this field to search for materials about a particular topic, such as contact investigation. Choose from the dropdown list of topics that reflect the content of the materials. You may jump to selections in this list by typing the first letter of the word you would like to select. To select or deselect multiple choices in a list, hold down either the Control key (PC) or Command key (Mac) while clicking choices.

Format	Use this field to search for materials in a specific format, such as fact sheet or videotape. You may jump to selections in this list by typing the first letter of the word you would like to select. To select or deselect multiple choices in a list, hold down either the Control key (PC) or Command key (Mac) while clicking choices.

Audience	Use this field to search for materials that have been developed for a specific group of people. You may jump to selections in this list by typing the first letter of the word you would like to select. To select or deselect multiple choices in a list, hold down either the Control key (PC) or Command key (Mac) while clicking choices.

Language	Use this field to search for materials that are written in a specific language. You may jump to selections in this list by typing the first letter of the word you would like to select. To select or deselect multiple choices in a list, hold down either the Control key (PC) or Command key (Mac) while clicking choices.

Author	Use this field to search for materials developed by a specific author or corporate author. Under this field are two buttons that help define your search. To conduct a narrower, more specific search, click all the words. To conduct a broader search, select at least one of the words. Example: To find materials authored by the National Institutes of Health, enter "National Institutes of Health" NIH and select at least one of the words.

Publisher	Use these fields to search for materials distributed by a specific group or organization. Under this field are two buttons that help define your search. To conduct a narrower, more specific search, click all the words. To conduct a broader search, select at least one of the words.

Years Published	Use this field to search for materials published between specific years. Enter the year in the 4-digit format, such as 1997 or 2002.

Display Formatting	Use these options to control how your results are displayed. To display brief summaries of each of the materials that match your search criteria, click Summary List. The summaries include the Title, Format, Publication Date, and Publisher, Language, and Target Audience information for each material. From the list of summaries, you will have the ability to view the full details for one, several, or all materials in your list. To display the full details for each of the materials that match your search criteria, click Complete Record.

Searching with Parts of Words
Truncation lets you search for more than one form of a word by entering a part of a word and placing an asterisk at the end of it.

For example, if you type prevent* in the Title field, the search would look for the word "prevent" as well as words that contain the word "prevent." Therefore, your results would include these titles:

Tuberculosis (TB) Preventive Therapy
National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention 2001 Program Briefing
You Can Prevent TB

Using Punctuation in Searches
The system does not understand most punctuation. If you use any form of punctuation in your search and get an error message or no results, remove the punctuation and try your search again.

Refining Your Search
If you find too few or no results, try broadening your search by:

Removing one of the terms from your search
Looking for misspellings in the terms you have entered
Using a complete term instead of an acronym. For example, instead of LTBI, try Latent Tuberculosis Infection.

If you find too many results—try narrowing your search by:

Using words that are more specific. For example, instead of testing, try skin testing.
Making selections in other fields. Because all of the materials in the database are TB-related, a search with just the word TB in the Search All Text field will yield too many records. Narrow the search by entering another word in the same field, such as testing, or by making selections in the Topic, Format, Audience, or Language fields.

Interpreting Your Search Results
The list of search results contains the publication's title, format, year of publication, distributing organization, language, and audience.

To view the details of a single record in the search results list, click the record's title
To view the details of several records in the search results list, click the checkboxes next to the records you want to see, then click View
To view the details of all records on this page in the search results list, click the checkbox next to View All, then click View

The search results are presented in a table that can be sorted by column headings. Select the down arrow to sort in descending order, select the up arrow to sort in ascending order.

View: Select the arrows in the View column to sort the results by relevancy.
Title: Select the arrows in the Title column to sort the results alphabetically by title.
Format: Select the arrows in the Format column to sort the results alphabetically by format.
Date: Select the arrows in the Date column to sort the results chronologically by publication date.
Publisher: Select the arrows in the Publisher column to sort the results alphabetically by the first organization listed that distributes the material.
Language: Select the arrows in the Language column to sort the results alphabetically by language. Bi-lingual materials will sort by only one of the languages.
Audience: This column cannot be sorted.

Frequently Asked Questions
These are frequently asked questions about the TB Education and Training Resource Materials Database. If you would like to suggest an FAQ for this list, send an e-mail to info@findtbresources.org.


Question	Why doesn't the Find TB Resources Database retrieve any records on my topic?
Answer	The database may not find any records for your topic for several reasons: You may be searching on a subject outside the scope of this database. The words you used may be misspelled. Your search may be too specific. You do not need to use every field on the search form. Try broadening your search.

Question	My search results gave me too many records. How can I narrow my search?
Answer	Try narrowing your search.

Question	Does it matter if I use upper or lower case letters?
Answer	No, the database does not recognize the difference between upper and lower case letters.

Question	How do I know what words to use?
Answer	If you think the database should have information on your topic but you are not finding any records, you may be using a term that is different from the one the database uses. Try to think of another way to phrase the concept you're looking for. Also, try broadening your search.

Question	When I've viewed the details of materials in my search results list, I've noticed that not all fields show up for all materials. For example, sometimes there's an author listed and sometimes there isn't. Why is that?
Answer	Fields do not appear if they do not contain data. For example, for some materials the Author field does not show up because there is no author attributed to the information.