More About the Advanced Word Search Index

The Advanced Word Search (AWS) index is a form of the keyword phrase index. It takes specified strings of text from variable-length fields and indexes each word separately.

When keyword indexing words which have attached contracted articles, such as "l'enfant," the system removes both the initial character and the apostrophe. Thus, a user can search the AWS index for "enfant" and successfully retrieve a record which contains "l'enfant" in a keyword indexed field.

See Using Advanced Word Searching and Advanced Word Search Syntax for more information. To view index rules for AWS, use the Administration Web Application.

Advanced Word Search Index Segments (or Slices)

There is one AWS index in your system. The AWS index is made up of segments (also called slices). When the system indexes a variable-length field, it places the indexed data into a segment of the database reserved for the field's type. The default segments are:

Segment Name	Includes:
Author	all entries in the author phrase index.
Title	all entries in the title phrase index.
Subject	all entries in the subject phrase index(es).
Note	entries from MARC tags not included in the author, title and subject phrase indexes. For instance, note data from the 5XX MARC tags.

Most numeric fields are not included in the AWS index. Call numbers can be included.

When performing a search against the AWS index, the system searches all of these database segments for the search expression. You can restrict searches to specific segments by including index tags as part of the search expression.

AWS index segments are given a one-letter abbreviation known as an "index tag." (Index tags and field group tags are not the same thing.) AWS index segments can be represented in search queries by index tags as well as index tag synonyms. For example, a:marlowe, au:marlowe, and author:marlowe are equivalent search queries.

To limit a search to a specific segment, enter a search query of this form:

<index_tag_synonym>:<word>

where <index_tag_synonym> is the index tag or one of its synonyms and <word> is the single word search term. Note that these two elements are separated by a colon (other characters, such as an equals sign are not supported).

Here are the standard system AWS index segments and the synonyms by which you can enter them into a search query:

Segment Name	Index Tag Synonyms
Title	t, ti, title
Author	a, au, author
Subject	d, d, s, su, subject
Note	n, no, note
Mediaplus	v

For example, to search for the book "John Barleycorn" by Jack London, you could limit the results to records with the name "London" in the Author field and the word "barleycorn" in the Title field by entering:

a:london and t:barleycorn

RightResult
Inclusion of index tag synonyms in a search bypasses RightResult.

The Mediaplus Segment

Innovative can create a "mediaplus" segment that uses the index tag v.

The mediaplus segment represents data that is indexed in both the media and the keyword segment. You can search the mediaplus segment to find data indexed in both the media and a keyword segment. For example, to search for "frog" in both the media and keyword segments, enter:

v:frog

The search term must occur in both the media and a keyword segment to be returned as a search result.

Fixed-length Fields in the AWS Index

Certain fixed-length fields can be used to limit the results from a search. Common fixed-length fields used to limit search results are MATERIAL TYPE (BCODE2), LANGUAGE, and LOCATION. When this feature is set up on your system, Innovative provides your library with a list of index tags valid for limiting search results.

Contact Innovative to request fixed-length field limits. There may be an associated fee for reindexing additional fixed-length fields.

To limit the results of a search by a value from a fixed-length field, enter:

where <index tag> is the index tag for the fixed-length field's index and <fixed-length_field_value> is the value by which to limit search results. Note that the two instances of <index tag> are separated by a colon (other characters, such as an equals sign are not supported).

Here are some examples:

To limit a set of search results to records whose...	Enter...
MATERIAL TYPE has a value of 'i'	`mattype:mattypei`
LANGUAGE has a value of 'chi'	`lang:langchi`
LOCATION has a value of 'main'	`branch:branchmain`