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Introduction | Available Databases | Accessing UNBIS Plus
Searching [Search Options] [Search Fields] [Search Methods] [Executing a Search]
Viewing Search Results | Quitting UNBIS Plus
List of Stopwords

Introduction

UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM includes ten different databases providing bibliographic access to the documentary output of the United Nations and to non-UN publications held at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library in New York or the Library of the United Nations Office at Geneva; access to full text of UN resolutions; to voting records and citations to speeches and agendas; and to authority files of names and subject terms. The following table contains information on the individual databases.

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Available Databases

Name of Database Coverage Description of Contents Searchable Fields
(Search Field Type/Min. Stem Length)
UN Bibliographic File 1993-Bibliographic citations to UN documents and publications, except for restricted materials, internal documents not intended for publication or dissemination, press releases and conference room papers.
Subject(P/3)
Subject keyword(K/3)
Title keyword(K/3)
Author keyword(A/3)
UN document no. (P/2)
Type of material (P/3)		 Date
ISBN/ISSN (P/3)
Documentation series(P/2)
Session (P/3)
Agenda item no.(P/3)
Agenda item subj.(K/3)
Non-UN Bibliographic File1993- Bibliographic citations to monographs, serials, journal articles, and publications of governments, international organizations, commercial publishers and other non-UN sources acquired by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the Library of the UN Office, Geneva.
Subject (P/3)
Subject keyword (K/3)
Title keyword(K/3)
Author keyword (A/3)		 Type of material (P/3)
Date
ISBN/ISSN (P/3)
Language (P/3)
UN and Non-UN Bibliographic File1993- Combines UN Bibliographic and Non-UN Bibliographic File.
Subject (P/3)
Subject keyword (K/3)
Title keyword(K/3)
Author keyword (A/3)
Type of material (P/3)		 Date
ISBN/ISSN (P/3)
Language (P/3)
Country of publication(P/3)
Resolutions
(Full Text)		 A/: 36th (1981-) session-
S/: 29th (1974-) year-
ECOSOC: 1982-		 Full text of all resolutions adopted by the General Assembly (A/) ; full text of all resolutions adopted by the Security Council (S/); full text of all resolutions adopted by the Economic and Social Council. Excluded: text of decisions, draft resolutions.
Title keyword (K/3)
Keyword in text (K/3)
Name of body (P/3)		 Session (P/3)
Resolution no. (P/2)
Voting Information A/: 38th (1983) session
S/: 1st year (1946-)		 Voting record for all resolutions adopted by the General Assembly (A/); voting records for all resolutions adopted by the Security Council (S/). Excluded are voting records of individual countries on draft resolutions which were not adopted, decisions, any matters voted upon in the Main Committees of the General Assembly.
Name of body (P/3)
Session (P/3)
Agenda item #(P/3)		 Resolution no. (P/2)
Title/Ag. subj. keyword(K/3)
Country (P/3)
Date
Speech Citations A/: 38th (1983-) session-
S/: 38th (1983) year-
E/: 1983-
T/: 15th (1982) special session-		 Citations to speeches made in the General Assembly (A/); the Security Council (S/); the Economic and Social Council (E/); the Trusteeship Council (T). When document symbol contains /SR: document contains summarized, third-person version. When document symbol contains: /PV: document contains full, verbatim version of speech. Excluded: Speeches made at UN Conferences and in meetings of subsidiary bodies.
Speaker/Country/Org. (K/3)
Ag. item subj. keyword (K/3)
Meeting date
Name of body (P/3)		 Session (P/3)
Agenda item no. (P/3)
UN document symbol (P/2)
Agendasn/a Listings of agenda item numbers and agenda item titles for a session or series of meetings held by a UN body.
Name of body keyw.(K/3)
Documentation series(P/2)
Session (P/3)		 Agenda item #(P/3)
Agenda doc. #(P/3)
Agenda item title (K/3)
Documentation Seriesn/a Information relating to the documentation series, that part of the document symbol which represents the main UN body , subsidiary body, Secretariat department, office or programme (eg. E/CN.4/) responsible for the issuance of documents and publications.
Name of body keyw.(K/3)
Documentation series(P/2)		Subject keyword(K/3)
Thesaurusn/a Trilingual Listing (E-F-S) of subject terms (descriptors) used in UNBIS files.
English term (K/3)
French term (K/3)		 Spanish term (K/3)
Facet (P/2)
Name Authority Listn/a Records of the standard form of names for corporate bodies, personal names, titles of conventions, agreements, and declarations, etc.
Name entry (K/3)Type of name (P/3)
Geographic Listn/a Selective listing of geographic terms used in UNBIS files.
Geographic name (K/3)

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Accessing UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM

To access UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM in a U.C. Berkeley Library on a Library Information System PC, click on:

E. Berkeley Information Network (CD-ROM Databases by Subject)

in the Library Information System PC opening screen. From the next window, select:

E. Government Information Databases.

In the next window, select the icon named UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM.

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Searching

Search Options | Search Fields | Search Methods | Executing a Search

Search Options

After accessing UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM, the following search options are available: Each of these selections corresponds to a database described in the table of available databases. To select a search option:

After selecting a search option, the search screen will be displayed. Each of the ten UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM databases has a specific search screen. Each of these search screens lists the search fields which can be used to search a specific database and corresponding boxes in which search terms can be typed.

Search Fields

Truncation Combination of Search Terms Proximity Searching Adjacency Searching
Keyword fields Yes Yes Yes Yes
Phrase fields Yes Yes No No
Date fields No No No No

 
 

Keyword fields

Keyword fields can be searched with individual words or numbers by typing the pertinent word(s) directly into the box, or by selecting a word from a Browse Index.

Phrase Fields

Phrase fields typically contain:
  • the name of an organization,
  • geographic name,
  • subject term, etc.

As soon as the first letters are entered in a phrase field, an alphabetical browse index opens up. In this index, highlight a phrase using the arrow keys and press ENTER to enter the phrase into the search box.

Date Fields

When the highlight in a search screen is moved to a date field, the following prompt appears:

From YYYY-MM-DD to YYYY-MM-DD

Use the arrow keys to move between the "From" and "To" prompts. To delete a value, use the BACKSPACE or DELETE keys.

Valid dates have to be entered in one or both prompts. Valid entries consist of:

  • just the year,
  • the year and the month,
  • the year, month and day.

Values in a date field are inclusive. If the search is for a single year, the same year has to be entered in both prompts.

Browse Indexes

Browse Indexes containing all available search words and phrases for all fields can be called up by pressing ?. Scrolling through the Indexes is accomplished by either typing the first few characters of a word or by using PGUP, PGDN, HOME, END, or the arrow keys. To select the highlighted term or phrase and enter it into the relevant search field, press ENTER.

Note: As soon as the first letters are entered in a phrase field an alphabetical browse index opens up.

Search Methods

Truncation | Combination of Search Terms | Proximity Searching | Adjacency Searching
 

Trunction

The asterisk (*) is used as the truncation character. It represents one or any number of characters. The stem preceding the truncation character (*) must be at least three, in some fields two characters long. The minimal stem length for searchable fields is indicated in the table of available databases.

Example: Agenda item title (K/3), where (K/3) indicates that this field is a keyword field and that the minimal stem length is 3 characters.

  • Keyword truncation example: EDUC* searches for terms "education", educational", "educators", etc.

  • Phrase truncation example: UN REGIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC CONFERENCE* retrieves records relating to all UN Regional Cartographic Conferences.

  • Example for truncation in numerically sorted fields: A/48/13* retrieves A/48/13/Add.1 and A/48/13/Add.1/Corr.1, but not A/48/130 or A/48/131.

Truncation is available in Keyword fields, Phrase fields

Combination of search terms (Boolean searching)

Available combination operators are:
  • AND: narrows the search by looking for records which contain both terms combined with AND;
  • OR: widens the search by looking for records with either of the two search terms combined with OR;
  • NOT: narrows the search by looking for records which contain the first term but NOT the second one (eg. FRUIT NOT APPLE).

Type search term in appropriate box or select a search term from a Browse Index. Then type one of the operators (AND, OR, NOT). Now type the second search term or select the second search term from a Browse Index.

Note: As soon as the first letters are entered in a phrase field an alphabetical browse index opens up. In this index, highlight a phrase using the arrow keys and press ENTER to enter the phrase into the search box. Then type one of the operators (AND, OR, NOT). Now start typing the second search term or select the second search term from a Browse Index.

Note: If more than one term is entered in a keyword field, the software automatically combines them with an OR operator.

Combination of search terms is available in Keyword fields, Phrase fields

Proximity searching

Proximity operator: W#, where # is the maximum number of words between two specific search terms in any order.

Example: WOMEN W5 DEVELOPMENT searches for records where the words "women" and "development" occur within five words of each other in any order).

Proximity searching is available in Keyword fields.

Adjacency searching

To search for two or more words next to each other in a specific order, type the words in the appropriate box separated by a space.

Example: COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS in the subject keyword field will retrieve all records containing this phrase in any of the subject fields.

Note: If more than one term is entered in a keyword field, the software automatically combines them with an OR operator.

Note: Stopwords (ie. very common words) are excluded from adjacency searches.

Proximity searching is available in Keyword fields.

Executing a search

When all the search terms have been entered in the pertinent boxes, press ,ENTER to execute the search. When the search is completed, a search summary will be displayed in the List of searches screen together with the number of hits.

To combine searches listed in the List of Searches screen, type the number of the first search in the Combine box at the bottom of the screen. Type one of the following symbols representing Boolean operators:

  • + for AND,
  • / for OR,
  • - for NOT.

Then type the second search term and press ENTER

The resulting search summary will be listed at the bottom of the List of Searches together with the number of hits.

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Viewing Search Results

Summary of Matches | Full Records | List of Selections | Print/Save

Records retrieved in searches can be viewed in the form of summaries (Summary of Matches)or in full (Full Record).

 

Summary of Matches

To view the results of a particular search, use the arrow keys to place the highlight on the search statement in the List of Searches. Press ENTER to open the Summary of Matches screen. All the summary citations for the records retrieved by the selected search are displayed. Each summary citation is numbered. At the top right of the screen a figure indicates the number of the currently highlighted summary and the total number of summary citations in the list, eg. 1/9 indicates the first summary citation in a list of nine.

To scroll through the list of summary citations, use the arrow, PGUP or PGDN, HOME or END keys. To go to a specific summary citation, press ALT-G, type the number of the desired summary citation, and press ENTER.

Full Records

The full record displays all available information about a specific record retrieved by a search. To display the full record from the Summary of Matches screen, use the arrow keys to place the highlight on the desired summary citation and press ENTER.

In some databases, the full record can be viewed in more than one format. To change the Full Record display format, press ALT - F, then use the arrow keys to place the highlight on the desired format option and press ENTER.

Note: The summary citation format of search results in the Voting Information database provides a summary of the voting on a particular resolution. In order to display the the voting of a particular country, press F9 and select the required country from the List of Countries window. To return to the summary voting record, press F9 again.

List of Selections

During a search, records of particular interest can be collected in a List of Selections. In order to add a particular record to this list, either:
  • use the arrow keys to highlight it in the Summary of Matches screen and press ALT-T;
  • or, when looking at a Full Record, press ALT-T to add it to the List of Selections.

In order to view the records in the List of Selections, press F8.

To delete records from the List of Selections, use the arrow keys to highlight the record in question and press the DEL key. To delete all records in List of Selections, press ALT-DEL.

From the List of Selections, the entire list or single records can be printed or saved.

Print/Save

Print
Note: Only very few Library Information System PC's are connected to a printer. We strongly recommend that data tables are downloaded to a floppy disk (either 3.5" or 5.25"). Disks have to be formatted for IBM PC or compatibles.
 

Before starting the print process, make sure that your copy card is in the copy card reader next to your terminal and the printer is turned on.

Records can be printed or saved in both the summary citation or full record format.

To print records, use the arrow keys to highlight the record to be printed or display the full record by highlighting the desired summary citation and pressing ENTER. Press ALT-P to display the Print Options menu. The following options are available:

    Complete List- Summary
    Complete List- Full record
    Higlighted item - Summary
    Highlighted item- Full record

Use the arrow keys to highlight the desired option and press ENTER to start printing.

Save
To save records, use the arrow keys to highlight the summary citation of the record to be printed or display the full record by highlighting the desired summary citation and pressing ENTER. Press ALT-S to display the Print Options menu. The following options are available:

    Complete List- Summary
    Complete List- Full record
    Higlighted item - Summary
    Highlighted item- Full record

Use the arrow keys to highlight the desired option and press ENTER. The Export Data window is opened. The following options are available:

  • Add data to the file a:unbis.exp
  • Change export filename
Use the arrow keys to highlight the desired option and press ENTER. If the first option is selected, your record(s) will be saved to the file unbis.exp on the floppy disk in dirive a:.

If you wish to change the drive and/or filename, highlight the "Change export filename" option and press ENTER. In the appearing window, specify the new drive and filename (eg. b:undocs.txt) and press ENTER to conform the new filename. Then press ENTER again to save your record(s) with the new filename.

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Quitting UNBIS Plus on CD-ROM

To quit UNBIS PLUS on CD-ROM press ALT-Q from any of the search and display screens. Using the arrow keys, select Yes or No from the dialog box and press ENTER.

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List of Stopwords

The following common words cannot be considered meaningful and thus have been excluded from the indexes and are not searchable:

a, an, and, as, at, but, by, de, et, for, from, in, into, la, le, no, not, of, on, or, the, to

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