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Searching Wisconsin
Legislature Searchable Infobases
Searching for content on Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases basically comprises four steps:
- Running a search
- Viewing the list of search results
- Selecting and viewing a document from the search results list
- Navigating the document you selected
On Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases, there are many ways that you can run a search. All searches start by typing what you want to search for into a search form. In short, a search form is a web page that contains one or more fields where you can type words/terms on which to search.
Figure
1. Search box in the Banner Area
The easiest and most readily accessible search form is the Quick Search box, located at the top of the site. This search form enables you to do a simple keyword search of the selected collection. For example, if the Wisconsin Administrative Code is selected in the Contents Area, clicking the search button in the Banner Area after typing a word or phrase will begin a keyword search of the Administrative Code. If the Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases (the first entry in the Content Area) is selected, a keyword search will be done on all the collections (including all the past years) in the site.
Alternatively, you can choose to perform a search using one of the search forms provided:
- Quick Find
- Boolean Search
- Advanced Search
Quick Find
Quick Find is one of the essential tools used to access information on the Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases. You will find it in the Banner area of the site at the top of the web page.
Figure
2. Some Quick Find search boxes
It does not provide a general search function, but the capability to go directly to a specific item in the Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases. From the Quick Find menu you can go to a citation (chapter, section, subsection, paragraph, subdivision or subdivision paragraph) of the Wisconsin Statutes or the Wisconsin Administrative Code, to the history of a bill or a clearinghouse rule, to a current act, or a subject heading in the Acts Subject Index or the Proposals Subject Index. See the Help link for the specific item, like Statutes or Administrative Code, on the Quick Find page to learn how the information is structured and the syntax of the Go To statement.
The Boolean and Advanced Search Forms
You can access the Boolean and Advanced Search Forms in the banner, directly underneath the Quick Find box. Instructions for using these search functions are provided on the search pages.
Figure
3. The Boolean and Advanced search form links.
The search on the Boolean form page is exactly the same as using the search in the banner area except that, by default, it will search the entire Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases. The scope of the search on the Boolean form can be narrowed. This is accomplished by clicking the check box in front of the item in the Java Table of Contents area. (Note: You cannot limit the scope of the Boolean search if you are using the HTML Table of Contents.) If you select a folder or the site all the documents under it are selected. For example, in Figure 4. below Chapter 13 of the Wisconsin Statutes has been selected. Any keyword search that is entered on the Boolean Search page will be limited to Chapter 13. Multiple documents, folders or collections can be selected as the scope for a given search. For example, one could select Chapters 20 and 96 of the Wisconsin Statutes and the Wisconsin Constitution collection and limit the search to only those documents.
Figure
4. The Boolean Search form.
The following table gives the syntax of all the searches on Wisconsin Legislature Searchable Infobases. The table is also included on the Boolean Search form.
Search Syntax Summary
|
Operator |
Example |
Result |
|
And |
one two |
Finds documents with both 'one' and 'two'. |
|
Or |
me | you |
Finds documents with either 'me' or 'you'. |
|
Not |
^him |
Finds documents that don't contain 'him'. |
|
Exclusive or |
apples ~ oranges |
Finds documents with either 'apples' or 'oranges', but not both. |
|
Phrase |
"to be or not" |
Finds documents with the exact phrase 'to be or not'. |
|
Single character wildcard |
wom?n |
Finds documents with 'woman', 'women', etc., or 'this', 'that', 'them', etc. |
|
Multiple character wildcard |
a*n |
Finds documents with 'an', 'addition', 'assign', etc., or 'work', 'works', 'working', etc. |
|
Ordered proximity |
"corporate tax law"/10 |
Finds documents with 'corporate', 'tax' and 'law' within 10 words, in the order given. |
|
Unordered proximity |
"technical resource acquisition"@5 |
Finds documents with 'technical', 'resource' and 'acquisition' within 5 words, in any order. |
|
Stemming (word form) |
run% |
Finds documents with 'run', 'ran', 'runs', and 'running'. |
|
Synonym |
alert$ |
Finds documents with 'alert', 'active', 'aware', 'quick', etc. |
The Advanced Search form page (Figure 5.) will do the exact same search as would be done from the Boolean Search page except that it is easier to write a complex search using the different search boxes provided on the Advance Search form. On the Boolean Search page you need to use the search syntax whereas on the Advanced Search page the various search operators each have their own box.
Figure
5. The Advanced Search form.
On both the Boolean and Advanced Search form pages there is a drop down to select how much of an excerpt of the document you want displayed around the hit on the Results page. With None only the collection and the document title will be displayed. Short displays 10 words around the hit, Medium gives you about one line including the hit, and Long gives you a few lines around the hit.
Viewing A List of Search Results
After performing any search, the Results frame opens to display a search results list. The search results list contains all matches (if any) to the specified search.
Figure
6. The Search Results page
The Results frame provides you with information regarding your search. At the top of the frame you see the term or terms upon which you searched ("Results for ..."). The Results frame also indicates which "batch" of results you are currently viewing out of the total number of results found ("1-11 of 11 results"). However, the body of the Results frame contains the list of results. Notice that the information in this list is arranged in columns. The following is a description of each column:
- Title lists the title of a document. Click a title in the search results list to display the corresponding document in the document viewing area.
- Location indicates the title of the content collection in which the corresponding document, or match, is located.
Clicking a result opens the document in the Document frame. After clicking a result, if you want to go back to your list of search results, click the Results tab again.
If there are more than twenty hits for a given search the results will be on
multiple pages. When there is more than
one page of results navigation icons will appear at the top and bottom of the
results page. At the top of the page
you will see 
which will take you to the previous page, and 
which will take you to the first results page. Similarly, at the bottom of the page you will
see 
which will take you to the next page, and 
which will take you to the last results page.
Figure
7. The Doc/Results page.
Another option that you can select is the Doc/Results tab. The Doc/Results page horizontally splits the browser window into two frames that enable you to view the Document and Results frames simultaneously.
Document Excerpts
You can use the Document Excerpts drop-down list box to alter the amount of surrounding context information displayed for each result. The context can help you determine whether a document is what you are looking for. Choose Short , Medium , or Long for the number of words of context to display on each side of the match.
Navigating in the Document Frame
After selecting a document from a list of search results, you are free to manually scroll through that document to identify all of its matches. Or, you could use the tools in the Document toolbar to navigate the search results and documents.
Figure 8. Document toolbar.
- Sync Contents expands or collapses the table of contents as necessary to show where the document is located in the site hierarchy and to view other documents in a similar context.
- Doc navigation lets you move from one document to the next as listed in the Table of Contents. The left arrow moves back one document, and the right arrow moves forward one.
- Hit navigation lets you navigate between search hits, if you have an active search. The left arrow moves back one hit, and the right arrow moves forward one.
- Hit Doc navigation lets you navigate around documents that have hits, if you have an active search. The left arrow moves to the previous document with a hit, and the right arrow moves forward to the next document with a hit.
- Clear Highlights removes the highlights from the matches in the current document. To have the highlights reappear, click the Results tab to return to the search results list and reclick the document from which you cleared highlights.
- Toggle Hidden hides or shows citation lines or other annotation text which is not part of the actual document.
- Print opens the Print... dialog of your browser for printing the current document.
|
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