39 Search Tactics (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
39 Search Tactics (Information Research)
The Pharaoh called on Shakh to negotiate the annual royal donation with
the priests of Karnak temple complex. The Pharaoh was not wise in such
matters and had previously given far too much to the detriment of the
state. It was not wise to voice such sentiments. Shakh instead set
about negotiating a figure ample to their needs but insufficient to
further expand the temple complex.
Shakh wisely chose to negotiate up river at the Kom Ombo temple - away
from Karnak. Choosing words carefully, he deftly rejected the initial
estimate of the temple's needs, then spoke calmly, eyes tight, that the
Pharaoh had decided Karnak should supply the priests to the Egyptian
army - at current expenses.
It was a clever ruse. The negotiated royal donation was significantly
reduced and the priests were happy to be excluded from military duty.
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If searching be a combination of science, art and experience, then the
science of searching is the easiest of the three. There are just a few
search elements to remember and search techniques to apply.
Firstly, there are the tactics associated with free text searching;
that of Boolean, proximity, truncation, field searching, target
searching and further enhancements.
Secondly, there are the basic classification schemes: the Dewey decimal
system (for books) The WIPO and US Patent Classification Systems (for
patents), the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Codes (for
industry) and a number of additional classification systems founded on
the same principles.
Thirdly, there is the way information is organized. A book has a
table-of-contents and an index, large directories like Kompass and Gale
Directory of Databases are arranged with so many indexes (geographic,
subject, product, name) that the contact information is often separated
and numbered, then referenced as a number. The results are initially
confusing. Statistics similarly have ways of presenting information
(pie charts, line charts, charts with ranges which do not reach zero)
and again, this can be confusing the first time you see them.
Let's start with the technique associated with searching a text
database.
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