What Are Databases Made Of?


	In a technique similar to LIMIT suffixes in DIALOG, it’s important to note that you can restrict your search to a part of the basic index. You would often want to do this to make sure … for example … mathematics is a very important concept in a particular set of search results. It is important to be cognizant of what fields are in the basic index. I know I’m probably beginning to sound like a broken record, but it’s a very important concept. The second example shows a search for the word “mathematics” restricted to the title (ti) field. There are times when this extreme narrowing of a search is beneficial. One example of this is when you try to verify a citation (patrons often struggle trying to find a citation that is slightly incorrect – maybe they misheard a detail or two in a discussion with a colleague at a conference. There’s always the hopeless case where even the best of databases won’t help … one famous item of library lore would be the kid that visits his local library looking for a book called (according to the kid) “Oranges and Peaches” – a good reference interview eventually revealed to the librarian that the kids teacher had mentioned a book on evolution by some guy named Darwin. Aha! The kid wanted “Origin of the Species!” As a person that has struggled with hearing impairment, I’m on the kids side! Oh … how many times have I misheard things!

	Sometimes I’ll restrict a search to the titles or descriptors … like you see in the third example above. If the information need is a few good articles on a topic, this can be a reasonable choice. For multiple fields, simply separate the field abbreviations by a comma. What fields are available for suffix searching? Again, it depends on the database – the Bluesheet is where to look!