1. Corporate Document Repository (CDR) – What is It?
The Corporate Document Repository (CDR) is FAO's online digital library and is a key component of the WAICENT framework. It stores thousands of documents in HTML
and PDF format, containing valuable material on agriculture, food security and the other areas of work of the Organization.
The CDR provides the users with two main search facilities (Free Text and Advanced Search), besides the general search engine located in the Home Page (Simple Form Search). Although originated by different exploring criteria, each set of results assures links to the full text documents plus additional related information appearing
in the detailed card (language, year, etc.). Additionally, the CDR contains a specific section dedicated to the documents which have been included in the repository in the last month (New Documents).
2.Search Operators and Wildcards
Search (or Boolean) Operators are words used to connect search terms together.
The standard sets of Boolean Operators that are implemented in the CDR now follow along with examples of how to use them when searching for electronic documents.
Before reading ahead, please note that the CDR uses ASCII symbols instead of words for its Boolean Operators. As a result, query strings shall contain the symbols in brackets listed below.
Boolean Opeartor
Description
Example
Visual Representation
And (&)
The "And" operator is used to combine two (or more) search terms together. In other words, if you wish to find documents dealing with the irrigation of rice, you should set up your search query using the "&" operator in the following manner.
Rice And Irrigation Rice&Irrigation (Use an ampersand to substitute for the word AND)
Or (,)
The "Or" operator is used to find documents containing at least one of the specified terms. In other words, if you wish to find information about rice or irrigation, or even about both, you should set up your search query using the "," operator in the following manner.
Rice Or Irrigation Rice,Irrigation (Use a comma to substitute for the word OR)
Double quotes " "
The double quotes as an operator can be used to search specific terms you might include in between, which are part of a phrase (e.g. "nutrition and agriculture").
food,"nutrition and agriculture"
Wildcard *
The wildcard is represented by the * asterisk symbol. As any letter can take the place of the asterisk, wildcards can be used before, in between or after a search term. Generally speaking, wildcards are used to find a close approximation of a word or variation of that word, or else when unsure about its spelling.
Wh* Wh*r *hite
Note: Remember not to leave any empty space at the end of the terms
3. Simple Form Search
The easiest method to execute a survey throughout the Document Repository is by using the Simple search facility located on the Home Page.
You simply have to digit the search term(s) within the text field and press the Search button located to the immediate left (see picture below).
As previously mentioned, the simplest way to perform a research can be accomplished by entering a single word. However single word searches rarely provide the kind of results you are looking for unless you are quite unclear about the exact topic upon you wish to retrieve information.
If you opt to do a single word search, e.g. using the word Forestry, the CDR will retrieve about 700 records from the database as the term "Forestry" is rather broad in scope. As a consequence, the CDR will present you with results that are general in scope.
The goal behind any good search is to "narrow" the search. Narrowing is accomplished by combining Boolean Operators and Wildcards
It is worth pointing out that the Simple Form search is performed throughout a number of fields and not within the content of the documents (i.e. the Free-Text search). In the table below you will find the complete list of the fields concerned, together with a brief description and a relevant example.
Field name
Description
Examples/Options
Title
Title of the document in any language
Forestry Production in Argentina
Author
Author of the document
Ross Young
Series Title
Title of the series
Agriculture/Agricultural Planning Studies
Meeting Type
Name of the Meeting
CL 116 (for FAO Council - 116th session)
Series Number
Sequential number of serial publication or meeting documents
130 (for Unasylva No. 130)
Country
Country of focus with regard to the document
Uganda
Keywords
Terms included in the AGROVOC online thesaurus
Yield factors
ISBN
International Standard Book Number. Ten-digit number (usually on the back of a book) which identifies a particular title, edition and publisher.
9251049432*
Job Number
The unique identification number assigned by FAO
W3432
Subtitle
Subheading located below the Title of the document
Research Towards Integrated Natural Resources Management Examples of Research Problems, Approaches and Partnerships in Action in the CGIAR
Abstract
Summary of the document content
–
*Note: Do not forget to delete the hyphens possibly included in the ISBN (e.g. 92-5-104943-2) otherwise they will work as Boolean operators.
4. Advanced Searches
The CDR also allows you to perform more sophisticated searches through its documents warehouse. In particular, according to the kind of document you are seeking, you have three different types of search facilities at your disposal:
Meetings
Articles
Publications
As for the Simple Form Search, it is worth bearing in mind that every pattern of Advanced Search executes its action throughout a number of fields and not within the documents content (i.e. the Free-Text search).
Advanced Search for Meetings
The Advanced Search for Meetings facility performs the search of all the relevant electronic documents (e.g. Committee on Agriculture, World Food Summit, etc.), stored within the Repository, by querying a single field or a combination of fields.
To use this facility, you can simply type in a word (e.g. Council or Members) or a phrase in the Title field and press Search. The CDR will go about scanning all the Meeting documents residing within its storehouse, eventually finding those containing that word or phrase in their Title.
If instead you wish to apply boundaries to your search criteria, you can do so by combining the various criteria features built into this facility (and, of course, by resorting to the Search Operators). You can customize your search by selecting criteria from a series of radio buttons and drop down menus.
A listing and explanation of these additional features now follows in the table below:
Field name
Field Type
Field operations:
Examples
Title
Text field
Type title of the meeting document
Provisional Agenda
Meeting Type
Drop Down Menu
Select Type of the Meeting
Committee on Agriculture
Publication Year
Drop Down Menu
Select the Year of publication of the document
1999
Data Owner
Drop Down Menu
Select Division, Department or Organization that produced the document
AG/AGD
Language
Drop Down Menu
Select Language of the documents
French
Job Number
Text field
Type a job number (unique identification number assigned by FAO)
X5000
Search Connector
drop Down Menu
Select whether to combine searches using the "AND" or the "OR" operator
AND (e.g. will search for documents that match all your specifications)
OR (e.g. will search for documents that match one or more or your specifications)
Output
Radio Buttons
Choose between HTML and XML the resulting document/s format XML
Maximum Number of records per page
Radio Buttons
Select how many records to display per page
50 100 200
Advanced Search for Articles
The Advanced Search for Articles facility executes the search of all the relevant electronic documents (Agrippa, World Animal Review, etc.), stored within the Repository, by querying a single field or a combination of fields.
To use this facility, you can simply type in a word or phrase in one of the text fields (Title, Author, etc.) and press Search. The CDR will go about scanning all the Articles residing within its storehouse, looking for those containing that word or phrase in the field concerned.
If instead you wish to apply boundaries to your search criteria, you can do so by combining the various criteria features built into this facility (and, of course, by resorting to the Search Operators).In fact, you can customize your search by selecting criteria from a series of radio buttons and drop down menus listed and described here below.
Field name
Field Type
Field operations:
Examples
title
Text field
Type Title of the Articles
World of Forestry
Author
Text field
Type Author of the Articles
Robert Redford
Issue Number
Text field
Type sequential number of the Article
5
Publication Year
Text field
Select Publication Year of the Article (hard copy)
2002
Job Number
Text field
Select a unique identification number assigned by FAO
Q9270
Series title
Drop Down Menu
Select Title of the series
Unasylva
Language
Drop Down Menu
Select Language of the documents
French
Maximum Number of records per page
Radio Buttons
Select how many records to display per page
50
Advanced Search for Publications
The Advanced Search for Publications facility executes the search of all the books and journals, stored within the Repository, by querying a single field or a combination of fields.
To use this facility, you can simply type in a word or phrase in one of the text fields (Title, Project, Job Number, etc...) and press Search.
The CDR will go about scanning all the publications residing within its storehouse, looking for those containing that word or phrase in the field concerned.
If instead you wish to apply boundaries to your search criteria you can do so by combining the various criteria features built into this facility (and, of course, by resorting to the Search Operators).
You can customize your searches by selecting criteria from a series of radio buttons and drop down menus listed and described in the table below:
Field name
Field Type
Field operations:
Examples
Title
Text field
Type Title of the Publication
A guide to the seaweed industry
Series title
Drop Down Menu
Select the Title of the Series
Fao Fisheries Technical Papers
Document Type
Drop Down Menu
Select Type of Publication
Book (Publications) Journal (FAO periodical Publications, e.g. Land Reform) Project (e.g. Namibia) Other (e.g. Articles)
Select Country of focus with regard to the document
South-Africa
Data Owner
Drop Down Menu
Select Division, Department or Organization that produced the document
FI/FII
Language
Drop Down Menu
Select Language of the resulting documents
French
Publication Year
Drop Down Menu
Select Publication Year of document (hard copy)
1999
Job Number
Text field
Select a unique identification number assigned by FAO
Y4765
Type of Publication
Radio Buttons
Specify if the document is a FAO or NON-FAO publication
FAO (e.g. FOP) NON FAO (e.g. ILRI)
Output
Radio Buttons
Choose between HTML and XML the resulting document/s format
HTML
Search Connector
Drop Down Menu
Select whether to combine searches using the AND or OR operator
AND (e.g. will search for documents that match all your specifications)
OR (e.g. will search for documents that match one or more or your specifications)
*To select this criterion you shall select before the option "Journal", in the "Document Type" menu.
5. Select Keywords
In addition to performing a regular search, the Advanced Search for Publications facility will let you include a keyword in your search from the AGROVOC online thesaurus. In order to do this, simply click on the Select Keyword icon located at the bottom of the search facility.
Next, you will be taken to a page containing the English alphabet used to index the various terms in the AGROVOC thesaurus. To look up a term based on any letter of the alphabet, click on it. A listing of all terms related to the letter you have selected will then appear.
To add a term to your search simply click on the plus add red icon. The selected word will appear at the top right-hand side of the page. To remove the term, simply click on the minus icon located next to the term.
In addition, if you click on the AGROVOC term from the list to your left you will call up a popup window listing related synonyms which can be added as keywords.
After selecting the term (or terms) you wish to use as a keyword, you also have the option to make use of the Boolean operators "AND" or "OR" by means of two radio buttons.
In addition, these two operators allow you to perform a more customized search by selecting the supplementary options "narrower term" "used for" and "related term" placed at their bottom.
Once you have configured your keywords, simply click on the button to be taken back to the search facility.
red icon. The selected word will appear at the top right-hand side of the page. To remove the term, simply click on the minus 
icon located next to the term.
button to be taken back to the search facility.