Help

System Requirements

• The SODA database is best accessed using Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Mozilla 1.0 or later, and Netscape 6.0 or later. Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 or later is required to view documents. Documents are quite lengthy, 1 to 50 MB in size or larger, and a high speed connection is required to have a satisfying search experience.

General Search Tips

• Searches are not case sensitive, so capitalization is unnecessary.
• Enter crater lake national park
• All searches in SODA automatically retrieve both singular and plural forms of words.
• Enter forest to retrieve documents containing the words forest and/or forests.
• Use quotes to search for a specific phrase or name.
• Enter "captain jack"
• To search in the year(s) field, enter year or year ranges.
• Enter 1978 or 1920-1950 or >2000
• Use wildcards to substitute for unknown letters or to search for multiple similar words.
• Select Boolean or Concept search; then enter fish* to retrieve the words fish, fishes, fisheries, fishing, etc.
• More examples:

Selecting Collection(s) to Search

• Choose a collection by clicking on Search Bioregion or Search Tribal.
• To search both collections at once first select one of the collections, then click on Advanced Options, check boxes for both collections, click Accept Search Settings, and click New Search.

Boolean, Concept or Pattern Searching

Boolean Search

• In this search you enter Boolean operators (and, or, not) to assist in finding exact matches for your search words.
• Search defaults to and operator. You can also use or or not along with your search words.
• Enter dams salmon to retrieve documents with both of these words.
• Enter dams or salmon to retrieve documents that contain either one of these words.
• Enter dams not salmon to retrieve documents containing the word dams, but not the word salmon.
• Use parentheses to create nested search statements.
• Enter (logging or grazing) and "elk river".
• Use within or adj to specify how close words should appear to each other. Within searches for word proximity; adj searches for both proximity and word order.
• Enter spotted barred within 10.
• Enter klamath language adj 5.

Concept Search

• A search type that lets you enter plain English searches with no Boolean operators.
• Automatically does semantic expansion (retrieves synonyms and other related words) on all search words.
• Enter harvesting to retrieve harvesting, gathering, reaping, etc.
• Ranks returned documents for relevance.

Pattern Search

• A search type that also lets you enter plain English searches with no Boolean operators.
• Automatically does pattern expansion on spelling differences.
• Enter the misspelled word chilocuin and you will also retrieve the correctly spelled word chiloquin.
• Ranks returned documents for relevance.

Keyword or Field Searching

Keyword Search

• Use to search for words that might appear only in the full-text of the document, rather than in title, subject or other specific fields.
• Use when you are not sure what field a word might appear in.
• Use to widen your results when the number of documents retrieved in a field search is low.
• Retrieves keywords in virtually all of the metadata fields, and in the full-text of documents.

Field Search

• Use to search for Author, Title, or Subject, or to search for dates in the Year(s) field.
• Use to narrow your search when a keyword search retrieves too many documents.
• Order of words you enter does not matter (words are searched as keywords within a field or fields, not as a phrase from left to right.)
• To search in additional fields (such as Publisher, Abstract, or Language) select Advanced Options, click in the box next to the field you wish to search, click Accept Search Settings, then click New Search.

Modify Search

• If your search returns too many documents, click on Modify Results, click in box labeled Search Within Results and type in additional search terms to narrow your search.

Search History

• To repeat a previous search, click the Search History button, then select specific search to repeat.

Customize Your Results Columns

• To customize the results columns that display following your search, click on Advanced Options. Under Results Display Options, click in the boxes next to the fields you want to display in your results columns, click Accept Search Settings, then click Search Results.

Mixed Search

• Use ! to expand one word via a concept search when not in concept mode.
• Enter mount! ashland in Boolean or Pattern mode to do a concept search on only the word mount.
• Use ~ to do pattern expansion on one word when in Boolean or Concept mode.
• Enter history ~mcloughlin in Boolean or Concept mode to do a pattern search on only the word mcloughlin.
• Use " " to keep specific search words from being expanded when in Concept or Pattern mode.
• Enter "talent" irrigation in a Concept or Pattern search to keep the word talent from being expanded.