Help Topics for CD Asia Classic

Searching through the online libraries

1. The default data set “All” which means that the system will search through all the subscribed libraries of the user, if more than one.
2. The user may limit the data set by clicking on the Libraries arrow and selecting the library or libraries within which the search will be done.

Searching for information

1. Simple Searches

   1. This is done by typing in search words the fields available in the query template. The query template is divided into Term, Title, Number, Ponente, Citation or Date. You can input search word/s or phrase/s in one or a combination of the fields.
   Example 1

   Example 2

   In the first example, only the first search field was used, while in the second example the fields for Term, Title and Date were used

2. Advanced Searches

   1. Creating search query/ies

      1. Phrase searching

         1. To look for materials containing an exact phrase, enclose the search words in quotation marks (“”).

            Example: “separation of powers”

            Without the quotation marks, the results will include documents where the words “separation”, “of”, and “powers” are far from each other. The blank space between the words becomes the connector “AND.”

      2. Proximity search

         1. If unsure of the exact wording of a phrase or concept, you may use proximity searching to find documents where the key words of the phrase or concept appear close to each other.

         2. To use proximity searching, type in the key words of the phrase, enclose them in quotation marks, then add the tilde (~) symbol and a number. The number will dictate the distance between the search terms. To increase the probability that the key words appear close to each other and are probably related, it is recommended that the number be low enough (i.e., less than 15).

            Example: “piercing veil corporate”~10

            The words “piercing”, “veil”, and “corporate” will appear within ten (10) words of each other. This search will find documents which will contain the following phrases:

            piercing the veil of corporate fiction

            piercing the veil of corporate entity

            doctrine of piercing the corporate veil

         3. Special characters (see discussion below) cannot be used for proximity searching.

      3. Use of operators

         1. Operators are used to expand or limit search results.
         2. The system recognizes the following operators: AND, OR and NOT. These must be in capital letters when used as operators.

         OPERATOR	HOW IT WORKS	SAMPLE QUERY	SEARCH RESULTS
         AND	Will look for documents containing all the search terms. If 2 or more words are typed with only a blank space in between, the system will consider the blank space as “AND”	treachery AND craft	All documents which contain both the words “treachery” and “craft”, whether near or far from each other
         OR	Will look for documents containing any of the search terms or both	treachery OR craft	All documents which contain either “treachery” or “craft” or both “treachery” and “craft”
         NOT	Will look for documents containing the first search term but excluding the term appearing after “NOT”	treachery NOT craft	All documents which contain “treachery” but not “craft”

      4. Use of special characters

         1. Special characters are likewise used to expand or limit search results.
         2. The special characters are the question mark [?] which is a character replacer, the asterisk [*] which is a word extender, and the parentheses [( )] which are used to group search terms.
         3. It is recommended that the number of character replacers (i.e., “?”) in a word be limited to five (5).
         4. Special characters cannot be used in formulating a proximity search query.

         SPECIAL CHARACTER	HOW IT WORKS	SAMPLE QUERY	SEARCH RESULTS
         ? – character replacer	Replaces a character in a word It may be used to replace any letter of the word Each use of the symbol replaces one letter	wom?n	Documents which contain the words woman or women
         		tax??	Documents which contain the words taxes or taxis
         		??legal	Documents which contain the word illegal
         * - word extender	Looks for words containing the root word or base letters, no matter how long	legal*	Documents which contain “legal” and/or words which have it as root word (e.g., legally, legality, legalese, legalization)
         	It is not necessary that the word to be extended is a proper word	consti*	Documents which contain “consti” and/or words of which “consti” is a component such as constitution, constitutions, constitutional, constitutionality
         () – grouping search terms	Used to group search terms to form sub-queries within a search parameter	(withholding OR compensation) and tax	Documents which contain “withholding tax”, “compensation tax”, or both these terms

      5. Combining operators and special characters

         Operators and special characters may be used together to form a search query.

         Example: (wiretap* OR corrupt*) AND “suspended official”

   2. Shorthands are short citations which may be used to look for specific laws. The search results will include documents which contain not only the short citation but other citations of the law. Shorthands must be enclosed in quotation marks when used.

      Example: “RA 8424” – will look for documents with Republic Act No. 8424, Rep. Act No. 8424, R.A. No. 8424

      Other shorthands:

      • CA xxxx - Commonwealth Act No. xxxx
      • EO xxxx - Executive Order No. xxxx
      • BP xxxx - Batas Pambansa Blg. xxxx
      • AO xxxx - Administrative Order No. xxxx
      • LOI xxxx - Letters of Instructions No. xxxx
      • PD xxxx - Presidential Decree No. xxxx
      • MO xxxx - Memorandum Order No. xxxx

Search Results

1. Display

   After typing in search terms in the search template, click on Search. The Search results page will be displayed with the following columns: Reference Number, Title, Excerpt and Date. The search terms will be highlighted in either or both the Title and Excerpt entries. The default display of the search results is based on relevance. Clicking on any document listed will open the document.

2. Grouping by type of issuance
   To group together the search results by issuance type, click on the upward arrow beside “Reference Number.” The search results will be sorted by issuance type, arranged in alphabetical order.

3. Arranging by date
   The search results may be arranged according to date. Clicking on the upward arrow beside “Date” will arrange the results from earliest to latest. Clicking on the arrow again will reverse the order.