The IT in the Home Annotations are a subset of a largest set of works, the Road Maps database that is contained in Reference Web Poster (RWP), a bibliographic software package that can be used on the web.

When you click on any of the Home Annotations links on the IT in the Home page, you will open a RWP "quick search" page that is preset for searching a specific Road Map. Items have been tagged for that road map using a special keyword known as an "$identifier." You must retain the $identifier to stay inside the Road Map.

Quick Search

To do a fast, simple search of authors, keywords, dates, and/or journal names, use the Quick Search page. To search for a subset of the IT Home Annotations category that you have selected, add your own keyword(s) after the $identifier that is already displayed. Separate all keywords with a space. Do not use anything else, such as a comma or plus sign, to join keywords. Do not use $ with your own keywords. This symbol is reserved for the $identifiers which have been preset for items inside specific road maps.

To ensure that you stay inside the category of annotations that you have selected, do not delete the $identifier that is already displayed in the search bar: doing so will prompt the search engine to search the entire database for the new keywords that you have entered.

The Quick Search page searches only those fields that are indexed—authors, keywords, dates, and journals. To search titles, use Advanced Search.

Advanced Search

To perform a thorough specialized search, and to search titles, use the Advanced Search page. To perform an advanced search, click on the Advanced Search button on the Quick Search page. A similar button on the Advanced Search page will bring you back to the Quick Search page

From the Advanced Search page, you search the entire IT Road Maps database, not just the IT in the Home annotated records. To limit an Advanced Search to the IT in the Home annotated records, you must manually enter one of the following, depending on which records you want to search:

• $datasetinventory for Data Sets
• $annotate for Research Papers and Books
• $allannotations for All Home Annotated Records

In addition, if you move back and forth between the Quick Search and the Advanced Search pages, the $identifier (one of the three noted above) that limits your search to the annotated records will disappear from the Quick Search page. It can be reentered manually, if desired.

From the Advanced Search page, you can search by a number of different fields: authors, keywords, periodical, year, titles, all indexed fields, all non-indexed fields. The fields above in italics are the indexed fields. The "All non-indexed fields" selection searches all the rest of the fields in the record, which vary from record to record. Boolean searches (and, or, not) are also possible from the Advanced Search page.

Search the IT in the Home Annotated Papers and Books by Specialized Keyword

The annotated papers and books contain highly simplified keyword designations. These keywords reflect basic differentiations in the subjects of the works. A list of keywords and brief descriptions of their meaning are presented on the IT in the Home Welcome page. Click on any link on the keywords on the Home Welcome page to search for records with that keyword.

Search the IT in Home Data Sets by Specialized Key Word

Specialized keyword designations have also been developed for the annotated data sets. These designations reflect basic components of the works, not Library of Congress subject heading classifications. A list of the specialized keyword designations for the annotated data sets appears on the IT in the Home Welcome page. You can click on any keyword to locate records in which it appears.

What to Do If You Get No Hits

A number of things can cause a search to come up with no hits. Try some of the following to seek additional hits:

• Use the singular of any plural search terms.
• Use the root word (i.e., use "tax" instead of "taxation").
• Avoid coupling search terms (i.e., use search terms one at a time).
• Try alternative search terms (e.g., instead of "information technology" use "computer" or "communications" or "network").
• Try searching more than one Road Map or search the entire database.
• Remember, the Quick Search page does not search titles. Use the Advanced Search page to search for words in titles.

Sort Order

References are sorted in order by date (descending) and then by author.

Viewing, Printing, Marking, and Exporting (Downloading) Records

After you click the Start Search button, RWP will return a list of all the records that match your criteria. To view an entire record, click on the small page icon to the left of the record.

Once you identify a record that you wish to keep, you can mark the record by clicking the small check box to the left of the record. As you accumulate marked records you can view just the marked records by clicking the Show Marked List button. To unmark an individual marked record, click the check box again. To unmarkan entire list, click the Clear Marked List button.

To print a list of records or an individual record, use the Print button on your browser. Unfortunately, it is not possible to print an entire search result except by using your browser's Print button to print each page, one by one.

Once you have identified annotated records in which you have an interest, you can mark them by clicking in the box immediately to the left of the record and export them into one of several bibliographic formats by clicking on the Export button (compatible formats include ProCite, Reference Manager, RIS and MEDLARS). You can also cut and paste into other software packages. Click on the Software Help button to reach the RWP help screen for additional details.

Road Maps Bibliographic Records

The items in the database are organized into bibliographic records. Each of these records contains a number of fields. The primary fields in each record (not every record has every field) are:

• Reference Type (e.g., book chapters, electronic citation)
• Author(s), primary and secondary (e.g., editors)
• Title, primary and secondary (e.g., volume containing a specific reference)
• Journal Name
• Publisher
• Date of Publication
• Volume & Issue
• Pages
• Notes
• Abstract (available for all home annotations, but only for about 1/3 of the records in the entire road maps data base)
• URL (and a live link) for online items
• Keywords

Indexed and Non-Indexed Fields

Some fields are indexed for quick record retrieval via the Quick Search page. The indexed fields are authors, keywords, periodicals, and year. Unfortunately, because of a limitation of the current version of the database search engine, titles are NOT indexed, and records cannot be retrieved on the Quick Search page by searching for a word in the title. However, titles can be searched on the Advanced Search page. All fields other than the four listed above are not indexed. Non-indexed (as well as indexed) fields can be used for record retrieval on the Advanced Search page. Generic reference types (e.g., book chapters, journal article, electronic citation) cannot be a search term.