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Table of Contents
 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Black Short Fiction provides sophisticated searching within the texts of more than 8,000 stories and folktales, as well as the ability to search author.

For novices who wish to get quick access to key documents, we recommend using the Tables of Contents and the Simple Search tools.

For scholars who wish to conduct in-depth searches we recommend using the Advanced Search tool.  The search value of some of the fields in the database will not become apparent until more documents are added.
 

1.2 UNDERSTANDING THE STRUCTURE OF THE DATABASE

There are three basic ways to use the database.

1.3 SEARCH NAVIGATION BAR

The Search Navigation Bar lets you move around the database retrieval tools. You can toggle between the tools by clicking in the section indicated above. (The graphic above is just an illustration; it does not have live links.)

The Search tools are divided into two separate categories, both of which search the texts in the database and return documents:

The dark brown color indicates which Search tool you are currently using. As you move from tool to tool, the color moves to indicate which tool you've selected. You may click on the light brown parts of the navigation bar to move to the appropriate tool.

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1.4 TABLE OF CONTENTS NAVIGATION BAR

The Tables of Contents Navigation Bar lets you move around the Tables of Contents tools. It works in the same way as the Search Tool bar. When using these tools, the Tables of Contents are expanded and the Full Text Searches are collapsed. You can toggle between the two by clicking Find or Search Texts.

The Tables of Contents are divided into five separate categories, all of which provide quick access to specific materials within the database.

The dark brown color indicates which table of contents you are using. The dark brown moves as you move from tool to tool. You may click on the light brown parts of the Navigation bar to move to the appropriate tool. (The graphic above is just an illustration; it does not have live links.)

1.5 NOTES ON MARK-UP CONVENTIONS

Materials in the database have been transcribed using original spellings and grammar. In some documents spelling is inconsistent, even within a sentence.

For more information on mark-up conventions, contact the Editor.

1.6 ABOUT THE SEARCH SOFTWARE

PhiloLogic, a suite of software developed by the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago in collaboration with The University of Chicago Library's Electronic Text Services, provides sophisticated searching of a wide variety of large encoded databases on the World Wide Web. It is an easy to use, yet powerful, full-text search, retrieval, and reporting system for large multimedia databases (texts, images, sound) with the ability to handle complex text structures with extensive indexed metadata.

PhiloLogic in its simplest form serves as a document retrieval or look up mechanism whereby users can search a relational database to retrieve given documents and, in some implementations, portions of texts such as acts, scenes, articles, or head-words. This same document retrieval mechanism serves as the basis for defining a corpus in a full-text search. One can, for example, either retrieve all documents in a database written by women from 1935 through 1945 or one can search for words or phrases within database which fit those criteria. The typical PhiloLogic search is broken down into five distinct stages: 1) defining a corpus (i.e. limiting a search), 2) word expansion, 3) word index searching, 4) text extraction, and 5) link resolution and formatting (e.g., SGML to HTML conversion). In other words, after defining a corpus (or one may search an entire database), one can execute a single term, phrase or proximity search. By looking up indices of the word(s) in a relational database, PhiloLogic extracts blocks of text containing the search term(s) with links to larger blocks of text. These extracts are formatted to display on a Web browser and sometimes include links to images, sound recordings, other texts, or even other databases.

In addition to simple word and phrase searches, users can perform more sophisticated searches by using extended UNIX-style regular expressions for complex wildcard searching and, in some implementations, morphological and orthographic expansion. All of these mechanisms to expand words can be combined using Boolean operators such as OR (the vertical bar "|") and AND (a space) within a variety of searching contexts.

Its functions were originally designed for scholarly research in databases of literary, religious, philosophical, and historical collections of texts as well as important historical encyclopedias and dictionaries. PhiloLogic handles notes so as not to interfere with phrase searching. Users can easily search words with diacritics (either by specifying accents or ignoring them by typing in uppercase) and non-Romanized scripts. At present there are some fifty databases on the Web under PhiloLogic containing languages such as ancient Greek, Latin, Hindi, and Urdu as well as nearly all Western European languages. PhiloLogic can also be set up to recognize or ignore manuscript notations such as different brackets, which can indicate spurious text or editorial emendations. Because the software recognizes typical text structures as real data objects, it understands units, such as words, sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages, permitting very flexible searching and retrieval of these textual objects. Other full-text engines on the market search for strings of characters. Rather than searching for two words within the same sentence or paragraph (intellectual units), other engines must search for two words within a certain number of characters regardless of sentence or paragraph. With PhiloLogic scholars always know where they are in a given text since pagination can be displayed along side other objects. Such a high degree of indexing can lead to decreases in speed, PhiloLogic indexing has been maximized such that it is still incredibly fast on the Web.

For more information on PhiloLogic, contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator, The University of Chicago Library.

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2. FINDING TOOLS

2.1 FIND SOURCES

The Find Sources tool lets you find all the sources in the database that match your specific criteria.

Practical Example: Find all sources in the database written by G.P. Putnam between 1850 and 1900.

Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Sources see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below.

2.2 FIND AUTHORS

The Find Authors tool lets you find all the authors in the database that match your specific criteria.

Practical Example: Find all authors who were also nurses.

Note: For a detailed discussion of the fields in Find Authors see the section on Fields and their Descriptions below.

 
3. SEARCHING

3.1 SEARCH OVERVIEW

There are two basic kinds of searching in the database.

The conventions used in each kind of searching are slightly different as shown below.

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3.2 FULL-TEXT SEARCHING

3.2.1 Full-Text Searching

Full-Text Searching is when you search for specific words or phrases that occur in the texts themselves.

PhiloLogic supports wildcard characters and Boolean (logical) operators, which are modeled on UNIX regular expressions to perform "pattern matching" in full-text searching. Pattern matching allows identification of a large number of words corresponding to a defined pattern. Wildcard characters can be useful, for example, in identifying cognates made obscure by affixes and vowel weakening, inconsistencies due to irregular orthography, and variations on account of word inflection as well as for discovering potential emendations for uncertain readings. The most commonly used regular expression operators (wildcard and Boolean) are listed below.

3.2.2 Wildcard Characters in Full-Text Searching

. (period):
matches any single character (e.g., gentlem.n will retrieve gentleman and gentlemen).
* (asterisk):
matches any string of characters, anchoring the match at the beginning of a word (e.g., cigar* will match cigar, cigars, cigarette, etc.).
* (asterisk):
matches any string of characters, anchoring the match at the end of a word (e.g., *habit will retrieve habit, cohabit, and inhabit), or in the middle (e.g., c.*eers matches compeers, cheers, and careers).
.? (period question mark):
matches the characters entered or the characters entered plus one more character in place of the question mark (e.g., hono.?r matches both honor and honour and cat.? matches cat and cats, but not cathedral, Catherine, etc.).
[a-z] (brackets):
matches a single character found in the specified range (e.g., [c-f]at will match cat, dat, eat, and fat) or any letters within the brackets (e.g., civili[zs]e will match both civilize and civilise).
# (hash mark):
matches capitalized words only (e.g., #bacon will retrieve Bacon, but not bacon). Otherwise word searches are case insensitive. Please note that this operator does not work properly in conjunction with the vertical bar (e.g., searching #hamlet|#bacon will not retrieve accurate results).
E (capital letter):
matches all accented and non-accented forms (e.g., to search naïveté regardless of accents type naIvetE).

Note: If you are using wildcard characters and would like to see a full list of the words matching your search-term, then run your search as a Frequency by Author search. The results page of a Frequency by Author search lists all the terms found in a database that match your search-term.

3.2.3 Wildcards and Boolean Operators in Full-Text Searching

3.2.4 Punctuation and Full-Text Searching

3.2.5 Selecting a Search Option

PhiloLogic at this time offers two kinds of searches: "Single Term and Phrase Search," which is set up as the default, and "Proximity Searching in the Same Sentence or Paragraph." One may select and deselect a search option by clicking on the "radio" buttons.

For a fuller discussion see the PhiloLogic User Manual.

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3.3 FIELD SEARCHING

3.3.1 Searching in Specific Fields

When entering search terms in bibliographic fields, as opposed to the full text search box, use the following Boolean operators: uppercase AND, OR, and NOT. One can use a NOT operator by itself (e.g., in the Type field enter: NOT editorial). It must be the first term in the box with no spaces preceding and it cannot be used with other Boolean operators

3.3.2 Advanced Field Searching with Regular Expression Operators

As in full text searching, one can use regular expression operators for more specialized searching. The caret sign (^) at the beginning of a word anchors the match at the beginning of the entry (e.g., ^child will find the personal event "Childbirth," but not "Adoption of Child). One can also use the vertical line (|) as a Boolean operator OR. With this operator one can exclude two terms from one's search (e.g., NOT adams|burr).

3.3.3 Punctuation and Spacing in Fielded Searching

When entering terms, punctuation and spacing must match exactly that in the fields. The following marks of punctuation produce a "Nothing found" message: ampersand (&), parentheses, question mark, and double quotes (""). If necessary for searching, replace the mark of punctuation with a period, which stand for any single character.

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4. FIELDS AND THEIR DESCRIPTIONS

4.1 LIST OF ALL FIELDS THAT CAN BE SEARCHED

Here is a summary table of all fields in the database, showing which tool they can be found on. Detailed descriptions can be found below.
 
Author Source Simple Advanced
Author:  x  x   x 
Author ID:  x      
Cultural Group       x
Document Record Number        x 
Document Type      x x
Editor or Translator x      
Educational Level  x       
Ethnicity  x       
Gender  x      x
Geographic       x
Journal     x
Language     x
Literary Period        x 
Nationality  x      x 
Occupation  x      x 
Place of Birth  x      
Place of Death  x      
Previously Unpublished      x 
Publication Place      
Publisher      x 
Race  x      x 
Religion  x      x 
Schools Attended:  x      
Source ID   x    
Titles (Document and Source)   x   x
Year of Birth  x      
Year of Death  x      
Year of Publication   x    
Year Written      x
Author Source Simple Advanced


4.2 FIELD DESCRIPTIONS WITH SAMPLE SEARCHES

4.2.1 Author

Description: This is the name of the author and includes all variant forms of the author's name such as nicknames, pen names, or aliases. The same official form of the name is used for display regardless of the form the author used at the time of writing.

How to use this field: Use this field to analyze word usage or materials written by a particular author. To see if a particular author is included in the database, go to the Table of Contents: Authors. Names are listed in Last Name, First Name, Middle Name or Initial order. This is a mandatory field.

Practical Example: Find all works by Anne Scott.

  • Click on Simple Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "Anne Scott" into the Author field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all works that meet the criteria. 

Note: To see a list of available Author terms click the Terms button to the right of the Author field.  Then copy and paste the name you wish to search into the Author field.

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4.2.2 Author ID

Description: This field allows advanced users to search for all documents by a particular author based on their unique ID.

How to use this field: This field is used to provide a quick, easy way to find all documents by a particular author by using the exact Author ID.

Practical Example: Find all stories written by Paul Laurence Dunbar--author ID number: A16652.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "A16652" into the Author ID field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all works written by the specific author.  

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4.2.3 Cultural Group 

Description: This field indicates the cultural background of the documents in the database.

How to use this field: Use this field to find documents that reflect a particular cultural background.

Practical Example: Find all Nigerian folktales.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "nigerian" into the Cultural Group field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all documents that meet the criteria.

Note: This field will be active in a forthcoming release.

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4.2.4 Document Record Number   

Description: This field contains the mandatory unique identifier for each document in the database.  It consists of the source work identifier and the individual document number in the form: S1-D001.

How to use this field: Use this field to quickly find a specific entry in the entire database.  Enter the document number exactly as it appears into the Record Number field in Advanced Search

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4.2.5 Document Type

Description: This field allows you to restrict the kinds of documents you want to search and retrieve.

How to use this field: Use this field to restrict a search to a specific type (i.e. stories, folktales, proverbs, etc.) of document using the Simple or Advanced Search.

Practical Example: Find all occurrences of the word "time" in a proverb.

  • Click on Simple Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "time" into the Search in Texts field. 
  • Enter "proverb" into the Document Type field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all occurrences in context.
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4.2.6 Editor or Translator

Description: This field describes the compiler, editor, translator or author of the source title. The name is entered Last Name, First Name, followed by a comma, and the abbreviation of the function filled (i.e. ed., comp., tr., introd., notes) if not the author.

How to use this field: This field allows users to find works translated or edited by specific individuals. It is used in the Find Sources screen.

Practical Example: Find all sources compiled by C. Cagnolo.

  • Click on Find Sources on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "Cagnolo" into the Editor or Translator field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all sources that meet the criteria.

Note: To see a list of available Editor or Translator terms click on the Terms button.  Then copy and paste the name you wish to search into the Editor or Translator field.

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4.2.7 Educational Level

Description: This field indicates the highest level of education completed by the author.  The possible options are: finished college, finished high school, Master's degree, not indicated.  

How to use this field: Use this field to find authors by their level of education.

Practical Example: Find all authors who completed college.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "finished college" into the Educational Level field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of authors who meet the criteria.

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4.2.8 Ethnicity

Description: This field is used to describe the heritage of the author -- such as Irish, Jamaican or African.

How to use this field: Use this field to find all documents by authors of a particular ethnicity. It is used in the Find Authors screen.

Practical Example: Find all stories written by Europeans.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "European" into the Ethnicity field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all stories written by Europeans.

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4.2.9 Gender

Description: This field indicates the gender of the author.

How to use this field: Use this field to search texts written either by men or by women.

Practical Example: Find all stories written by women that mention children.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Select "F" from the Gender drop-down box.
  • Enter child* into the Search in Texts field.  This will retrieve all occurrences of words that begin with child, such as children, childish, etc... 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all relevant passages that include the word children and are written by women.

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4.2.10 Geographic

Description: This field indicates the country or region that a document originated from. 

How to use this field: Use this field to find stories from a specific country or region.

Practical Example: Find all stories from Guyana.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "guyana" into the Geographic field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all stories that meet the criteria.

Note: This field will be active in a forthcoming release.

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4.2.11 Journal

Description: Some sources are part of larger sources or journals.  This field is for finding these sources or documents based on their source. 

How to use this field: Use this field to find sources or documents that appear in a particular journal or collection.  This field is used in the Find Sources and Advanced Search screens. 

Practical Example: Find all sources in the journal titled African Studies.

  • Click on Find Sources on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "african studies" into the Journal field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all sources in the specified journal.

Note: To see a list of available Journal terms click on the Terms button. Then copy and paste the name you wish to search into the Journal field.

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4.2.12 Language

Description: This field indicates the original language that the source was written in. 

How to use this field: Use this field to find sources originally written in a specific language. This field is used in the Find Sources and Advanced Search screens.

Practical Example: Find all sources originally written in English.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "English" into the Language field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all sources that match the criteria.

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4.2.13 Literary Period

Description: This field contains the literary period such as 'Black Arts Movement'.  It is controlled.

How to use this field: Use this field to restrict your searches to a particular literary period.  The field is best used in combination with other searches. For example, you can find all authors in the database that wrote during a particular period, all works written during a particular literary period, all characters in stories of a particular literary period, or all uses of words and phrases during a particular literary period.

Practical Example: Find all stories written during the Harlem Renaissance.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "story" into the Document Type field.
  • Enter "Harlem Renaissance" into the Literary Period field. 
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all stories that fit the criteria.

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4.2.14 Nationality

Description: This field enables you to find materials written by individuals of a particular nationality. 

How to use this field: Use this field when you want to restrict your search to all materials written by authors of a particular nationality.

Practical Example: Find all stories written by Africans.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "Africans" into the Nationality field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all stories written by Africans.

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4.2.15 Occupation

Description: This field describes the author's occupation, if any. It is an optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find documents written by an author in a particular occupation - for example, all teachers.

Note: All occupations throughout an author's life are entered. This is not tied to when an author is writing. An individual may have several occupations throughout his or her life.

Practical Example: Find all stories written by journalists.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "journalist" into the Occupation field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: To see a list of available Occupation terms click on the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Occupation field.

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4.2.16 Place of Birth

Description: This field describes the location of the author's birth, if known. It is an optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find authors who were born in a particular place or region. It is used in the Find Authors screen. Use "Not indicated" to find occurrences where we have been unable to determine the place of birth.

Practical Example: Find all authors who were born in Africa.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "Africa" into the Place of Birth field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: To see a list of available Place of Birth terms click on the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Place of Birth field.

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4.2.17 Place of Death

Description: This field describes the location of the author's death, if known. It is an optional field.

How to use this field: Use this field to find authors who died in a particular place or region. It is used in the Find Authors screen. Use "Not indicated" to find occurrences where we have been unable to determine the place of death.

Practical Example: Find all authors who died in Philadelphia.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "philadelphia" into the Place of Death field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: To see what Place of Death terms are available click on the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Place of Death field.

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4.2.18 Previously Unpublished

Description: This field is a 'Yes/No' field that indicates whether a story has been formally published prior to 2002.   This field is populated through research of the existing bibliographic literature, and in some cases with information from the original author.

How to use this field: Use this field to find all stories in the database that have not been published before.

Practical Example: Find all unpublished stories in the database.

  • Click on Find Sources on the navigation bar.
  • Select YES in the Previously Unpublished drop-down box.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all stories that meet the criteria.

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4.2.19 Publication Place

Description: This field allows you to determine where a source work was published.

How to use this field: Use this field to find out where specific sources were published.

Practical Example: Find all stories published in Boston.

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4.2.20 Publisher

Description: This field indicates the name of the publisher of the source work. 

How to use this field: Use this field to find all source works by a particular publisher. It is used only in the Find Sources and Advanced Search screens.

Practical Example: Find all sources published by Oxford University Press.

  • Click on Find Sources on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "oxford university press" into the Publisher field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all sources published by Oxford University Press.

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4.2.21 Race

Description: This field indicates whether the author is White, Black, Asian, American Indian or not indicated.

How to use this field: Use this field to find all documents written by authors from a particular race or races.

Practical Example: Find all multiracial authors.

  • Click on Find Authors on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "multiracial" into the Race field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a summary of all multiracial authors.

Note: If you enter "Not Indicated" the database will respond with all documents where the race of the author is unknown.

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4.2.22 Religion

Description: This describes the religious background or beliefs of the author.

How to use this field: This field can be used to analyze the vocabulary, behavior and experiences of authors with particular religious beliefs.

Practical Example: Find stories written by Catholics that mention church.

  • Click on Advanced Search on the navigation bar.
  • Enter "church" into the Search in Texts field.
  • Enter in "catholic" into the Religion field.
  • Click on the SEARCH button.
  • The system responds with a list of all occurrences.

Note: Terms in this field are standardized in an authority file. "Not Indicated" is used when we have been unable to ascertain the religion. "Christian" is used where a specific denomination is not known.  To see what Religion terms are available click on the Terms button.  Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Religion field.

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4.2.23 Schools Attended

Description: This field allows you to search for authors who attended specific a specific school.

How to use this field: Use this field to find authors who attended a specific college or university.

Practical Example: Find all authors who attended Columbia University.

Note: To see what Schools Attended terms are available click on the Terms button. Copy terms that you want and paste them into the Schools Attended field.

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4.2.24 Source ID

Description: This field contains the unique identifier for each source in the database, which is in the form: S00001.

How to use this field: This field allows you to go quickly to a specific entry