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Search the Annotated Literature

  • Searching the annotated literature database allows the user to search the museum literature database compiled by the MLC (inluding the reviews-to-date) by keyword, title, date, subject word, year, publisher/journal information, author, and museum type. The searchable literature database also contains the thesis and dissertation database. The thesis and dissertation citations include the abstract provided by Dissertation Abstracts International in lieu of a critical review authored by a member of the MLC.

    • A few search basics:

    • All of the search fields are automatically right-truncated, which means that if you search for "enjoy", the return list will include enjoyment, enjoying, enjoyable. Similarly, if you do a date search for 198, your return list will include 1980, 1981, 1982, etc.
    • The search engine is not case sensitive -- it does not distinguish between upper and lower case letters.
    • Punctuation is ignored.
    • Search results are displayed in brief format. The brief format includes the author, title and date. To view the full citation, click on the underlined number to the left of the author's name. If the item has been reviewed by a member of the MLC, the full citation will include not only the publisher/journal information and the museum type but also the annotation. Reviewed citations are indicated in the table format by an "X" to the right of the author's name.
    • The MLC search engine uses the Boolean terms And and Or. Use the And function to connect terms and combine concepts (i.e. to find more than one concept in the same record). Using And narrows your search (as all the terms you type must be present in each record in the result set). Using Or requests that the search engine look for all the terms you have specified but does not require that they all appear in each of the found records. The MLC search engine default is And.

    Explanation of Search Fields:

    Author, Title, Year, Publisher/Journal Information:

    • A search using these fields will return results in which the term(s) entered by the user occur only in the respective fields.

    Museum Type:

    • A search using the museum type field will return results in which the word typed in occurs only in that field . The museum types are: Children's, Science, Natural, History, Zoo (includes aquaria), Botanical, Learning, and General.

    Subject Word:

    • A search using the subject field will return results in which the word typed in occurs in all available search fields.

    Annotation:

    • A search using the annotation field will return results in which the word typed in occurs in the annotation of articles which have already been reviewed.

    Keywords:

    • A search using the keyword field will return results in which the word typed in occurs only in the keyword field. If the citation has been reviewed, the field contains the words the MLC reviewer determined were descriptive of the main points of the article, chapter or book.

    Theme:

    • A search using the theme field will return results in which the word typed in occurs only in this field. If the citation has been reviewed, the field contains the MLC proposal theme(s) to which the reviewer determined the piece of literature was most relevant.