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How Do I Use The Information Finder?

Topics

The Information Finder–What is it? Free Text Search Browse By Topic Specializes Searches Specialized Search for Documents Specialized Search for Photos Specialized Search for Press Releases Specialized Search for Videos Specialized Search for Audios Select Keywords

1. The Information Finder–What is It?

The Information Finder is a search engine developed by WAICENT which enables users to search for FAO electronic information objects, namely: documents, WebPages, photos, press releases, videos and audios. By means of its facilities, users can either perform a free text search or a specialized search. The free text search will retrieve documents of any format whatsoever (i.e. documents, WebPages, photos, press releases and videos), whereas the specialized search will only retrieve documents of a specific format: each document format has its own advanced search engine.

2. Free Text Search

The Free Text Search facility of the Information Finder will let you perform a search based on your own search criteria. To use this facility you can simply start your search by typing in the form a term or phrase.

3. Browse By Topic

If you wish to find electronic documents without undertaking a full search, you can opt to browse the entire holdings of FAO´s electronic data warehouse by Topic headings. Browsing by topics is the fastest way to find information on a specific issue and it can also be useful if unsure of how to narrow your topic search. The "Browser By Topic" area is located on the home page of the Information Finder (besides on its own page) and consists of two facilities: a blank field and the English alphabet. The first one allows the user to search for a specific term by typing it in the box; the latter enables to look up a term based on any letter of the alphabet by clicking on it. In fact if you click on any of the letters, the engine will perform a search of all electronic records related to that letter and will display an alphabetical list of keywords specific to that letter together with the number of records relating to each term (appearing in square brackets). When you click on any of the Topics listed, the Information Finder will provide you with a page listing the related records. At the top hand side of the resulting page you will see some relevant information like the list of linkable relative terms and the number of records found. In this regard, it shall be noted that the Information Finder will limit the results of the search to a maximum of 50 linkable documents per page. If there are more than 50 documents, the Information Finder will display the number of navigable pages that can be accessed by clicking on the respective hyperlinked page number at the bottom of the page. At this point, you can opt to access a brief synopsis of the document by clicking on the preview icon or else the entire document .

4. Specialized Searches

The Information Finder allows the user to perform more sophisticated searches of the various FAO related data warehouses. In particular, according to the kind of information you are looking for, you have five different types of search facilities at your disposal:

Documents Photos Press Releases Videos Audios

It is worth bearing in mind that every pattern of Specialized Search executes its action throughout a number of fields and not within the records´ content (i.e. the Free-Text search ).

Specialized Search for Documents

The Advanced Search for Documents facility executes the search of all electronic documents residing within the Corporate Document Repository of FAO. To use this facility, simply type in a word or phrase in one of the text fields (Title, Project, Job Number, etc.) and press the search button. According to your search criteria, the Information Finder will scan the concerned fields of all documents (i.e. Articles, Meetings and Publications). If instead you wish to apply boundaries to your search criteria you can also combine the various criteria features built into this facility (and, of course, by resorting to theSearch 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 Will Let User	Examples
Title	Textfield	Type Title of the Document	Crop Farming in Nigeria
Series Title	Drop Down Menu	Select Title of the Series	Agricultural/Copublications
Journal Title	Drop Down Menu	Select Title of Journal	World Animal Review
Meeting Title	Drop Down Menu	Select Title of Meeting	Asia-Pacific Forestry Commission
Series Number	Text field	Type the Number of serial publication or meeting documents	130 (for FAO Council–116th session)
Project	Text field	Insert the Code associated to a specific Project	GCP/INT/575/SWE
Country	Drop Down Menu	Select Country of focus in regards to the document	Uganda
Language	Drop Down Menu	Select Language of document	French
Publication Year	Drop Down Menu	Select Publication Year of document(printed copy)	2001
Job Number	Text Field	Select a unique identification number assigned by FAO	W3432
Data Owner	Drop Down Menu	Select Division or Department that produced the publication	ESC (for Commodities and trade Division)
Type of publication	Radio Buttons	Specify whether publication is FAO or NON FAO	FAO (e.g. FOP) NON FAO (e.g. ILRI)
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)
Maximum Number of records per page	Radio Buttons	Select how many records to display per page(50/100/200)	50
Select Keywords	Image Button

Specialized Search For Photos

The Advanced Search for Photos feature performs a search of all pictures residing within the FAO Media Base and INPhO Image Gallery. To use this facility, simply type in a word or phrase in the Title field or Author field and press the Search button. The Information Finder will set off the search of any pictures based on your search criteria. If instead you wish to apply boundaries to your search criteria you can also combine the various criteria features built into this facility (and, of course, resort to the Search Operators). You can customize your searches 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 Will Let User	Examples
Title	Text field	Type Title of the photo	Threshing with cattle
Author	Text field	Type Author of photo	Ron Hamsen
Human Content	Drop Down Menu	Select human elements within the photo	Men working in the field: Parent with child
Subject	Drop Down Menu	Select theme of photo	Field threshing place; Refugee Camp
Categories	Drop Down Menu	Select category of photo	Human nutrition - General aspects; Animal diseases
Geographical Region	Drop Down Menu	Select geographical area of interest of the photo	Africa
Year	Drop Down Menu	Select Publication Year of the photo	1999
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)
Maximum Number of records per page	Radio Buttons	Select how many records to display per page(50/100/200)	50

Specialized Search For Press Releases

The Advanced Search for Press Release facility executes the search of all FAO Press Releases. To use this facility, you can simply type in a word or phrase in the Title field and press the Search button. The Information Finder will start scanning all the relevant press releases, 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). 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 Will Let User	Examples
Title	Text field	Type Title of the document	Foot and mouth disease
Year	Drop Down Menu	Select Publication Year of document	1999
Categories	Drop Down Menu	Select category of the document	Animal diseases
Geographical Region	Drop Down Menu	Select geographical area of interest of the document	Africa
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)
Maximum Number of records per page	Radio Buttons	Select how many records to display per page(50/100/200)	50
Select Keywords	Image Button

Specialized Search For Videos

The Advanced Search for Videos feature executes the search of all films residing within the FAO Video Catalogue To use this facility, you can simply type in a word or phrase in one of the text fields (i.e. Title, Producer) and press the Search button. The Information Finder will set off the scan of all the records contained within the mentioned database, looking for those containing that word or phrase in the fields concerned. If instead you wish to restrict 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 Will Let User	Examples
Title	Text field	Type Title of the film	Gong Li visits China
Producer	Text field	Type name of the film Producer	Julio Iglesias
Subject	Drop Down Menu	Select theme of the film	Ambassadors
Country	Drop Down Menu	Select Country of focus with regard to the film	China
Language	Drop Down Menu	Select Language of the resulting films	French
Year	Drop Down Menu	Select Publication Year of the film	2002
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)
Maximum Number of records per page	Radio Buttons	Select how many records to display per page(50/100/200)	50

Specialized Search For Audios

The Advanced Search for Audios feature executes the search of all audios residing within the FAO Audio Catalogue To use this facility, you can simply type in a word or phrase in one of the text fields (i.e. Title, Producer) and press the Search button. The Information Finder will set off the scan of all the records contained within the mentioned database, looking for those containing that word or phrase in the fields concerned. If instead you wish to restrict 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 Will Let User	Examples
Title	Text field	Type Title of the audio	Gong Li visits China
Language	Drop Down Menu	Select Language of the resulting films	French
Year	Drop Down Menu	Select Publication Year of the film	2002
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)
Maximum Number of records per page	Radio Buttons	Select how many records to display per page(50/100/200)	50

7. Select Keywords

In addition to performing a regular search, all Specialized Search facilities 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 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 foot. Once you have configured your keywords, simply click on the button to be taken back to the search facility.

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