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Environment » Cross-linked Information Resources » Search Tips

CLIR Search Tips

CLIR (Cross-Linked Information Resources) is an umbrella search application that allows users to search multiple sources of environmental and natural resource information simultaneously through a single search window.

Tips:
Basic Search
Wildcards Search Type

Advanced Search
Title Author Year Published Species Name Other Identifier Keyword

Results
View & Download Documents

Basic Search

The basic search allows you to perform a keyword search for documents in the digital libraries (e-libraries) searched by CLIR. If the basic search returns more documents than you expected, you can use the advanced search to perform a more restricted search. Depending on the e-libraries you select to search, keywords may include authors, title, abstract, short description, long description, report number, publication date, publisher, scientific or English species name and more (see tables below).

Enter all or a portion of the keyword (it may be preceded and/or followed by the % or * wildcard) to expand your search.

Basic search searches these metadata fields	in these e-Libraries
Abstract	EIRS, MoFR Library, SIWE
Author	EcoCat, EIRS, MoFR Library
Contributing Authors	EIRS
Keywords	EIRS
Location Description	SIWE
Notes	MoFR Library
Other Report Numbers	EIRS
Project Name	SIWE
Publication Date	EIRS
Publisher	EIRS
Report Number	EIRS
Results	SIWE
Scientific or English Species Name	BCSEE, EIRS
Short or Long Description	EcoCat
Series	EIRS, MoFR Library
Subject	EcoCat, MoFR Library
Title	EcoCat, EIRS, MoFR Library, SIWE
Topic	EIRS

Wildcards % or *

You can use the % or * wildcard to expand the search to include all documents that contain the word or partial word entered. For example:

• If you enter water% or water* in the Keywords field, any document with a keyword beginning with water is displayed (e.g., waterfall, watershed, etc.).
• If you enter %water or *water in the Keywords field, any document with a keyword ending with water is displayed (e.g., backwater, rainwater, etc.).
• If you enter %water% or *water* in the Keywords field, any document with a keyword containing water is displayed (e.g., backwater, rainwater, waterfall, watershed, etc.).

Search Type

You can narrow the search based on the search type you select.

If you are searching for documents that contain all the words you entered as keywords, select the Search for all words search type. Only documents that contain at least one occurrence of all of the search words are returned. For example, if you enter climate change forest in the Keywords field, all documents that have climate and change and forest (in any order) in the metadata are returned.

If you are searching for documents that contain a specific phrase, select the Search for exact phrase search type. Only documents that contain at least one occurrence of the exact search words are returned. For example, if you enter white tailed deer in the Keywords field, only those documents that have the exact phrase white tailed deer in the metadata are returned.

If you are searching for documents that contain any of the words you entered as keywords, select the Search for any words search type. Only documents that contain at least one occurrence of any of the search words are returned. For example, if you enter habitat restoration protection in the Keywords field, all documents that have habitat OR restoration OR protection in the metadata are returned.

Advanced Search

The advanced search allows you to narrow your search results by entering more search criteria. You can use the advanced search when you are searching for a specific document and you know something about it (e.g., the title, author, publication date, etc.). You may enter values in one or more of the search fields. The more search criteria you enter, the faster the search and the more relevant the search results. NOTE: If you use more than one search criteria, the search will use ALL fields, so only documents with metadata matching search criteria in all the fields used will be returned in your results.

Title

If you know the exact title of the document (e.g., 1999 Mid-Frogmoore Lake Fall Fisheries Assessment), enter it in the Title field. If you only know a portion of the title (e.g., Frogmoore Lake), use the % or * wildcard before or after the words used to expand the search to include all documents that contain the words you know. Using the current example, you would probably enter %Frogmoore Lake% or *Frogmoore Lake* in the Title field. NOTE: The title search searches for the exact phrase, so if you do not get the results you expect, try using wild cards and/or fewer words in the title field.

Author

Authors' names have been entered in different ways in the database (e.g., Maricle Stephen or Stephen, Maricle or Stephen, M.). For the best success, enter the Last Name only in the Author field. If you don’t know how it was entered or are unsure of spelling, enter a portion of the last name and use the % or * wildcard to expand the search to include all documents authored by anyone with at lteast that portion of that last name (e.g., %Mari% or *Mari*). Putting the wildcard before and after the last name ensures that all documents authored by anyone with that last name are returned regardless of how the name was entered in the database.

Year Published (YYYY) and To (YYYY)

If you know the year the document was published, enter it in the Year Published (YYYY) field and the To (YYYY) field. You can enter the year in these fields in several different formats: 2007, %007, *007, %07, *07, %7, *7, 200%, 200*, 20%, 20*, 2% or 2*.

If you enter a value in the Year Published (YYYY) field, a search of documents published on or after the specified year is performed. If you enter a value in the To (YYYY) field, a search of documents published on or before the specified year is performed. If you enter values in both fields, a search of documents published between the two dates is performed. If you leave both fields blank, any document that matches the other search criteria you entered is returned. For example:

• If you enter 1999 in the Year Published (YYYY) field and leave the To (YYYY) field blank, only those documents published between 1999 and the current year are displayed.
• If you leave the Year Published (YYYY) field blank and enter 1999 in the To (YYYY) field blank, only those documents published before 1999 are displayed.
• If you enter %06 or *06 in the Year Published (YYYY) field and leave the To (YYYY) field blank, only those documents published in 2006 are displayed.
• If you leave the Year Published (YYYY) field blank and enter 19% or 19* in the To (YYYY) field blank, only those documents published in the twentieth century are displayed.

NOTE: In EIRS e-libraries ONLY, the year field may be displayed as 1111. This indicates that the actual publication date is unknown (year published is a mandatory field in EIRS and must have four digits entered)

Species Name

NOTE: The Species Name search field ALSO searches Ecological Communities, e.g., antelope-brush/bluebunch wheatgrass.

NOTE: You cannot search the BC Ministry of Forests and Range Library Catalogue (MoFR Library) using species name.

NOTE: You can only search the BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer (BCSEE) e-Library using species name.

If you enter a value in the Species Name field, a search of species names AND ecological communities is performed. The search may be limited to scientific species and ecological community names, English species and ecological community names or both based on the radio button you select. If you don’t know the whole name (i.e., genus, species, and subspecies in some cases), use the % or * wildcards to expand the search. For example:

• If you enter %trout or *trout in the Species Name field and select the English radio button, only documents with the word trout in the English species or ecological community name are displayed (e.g., Rainbow Trout or Cutthroat Trout).
• If you enter ursus% or ursus* in the Species Name field and select the Scientific radio button, only documents with the word ursus in the scientific species or ecological community name are displayed (e.g., Ursus arctos or Ursus americanus).
• If you enter %ate% in the Species Name field and select the Either radio button, only documents with the letters ate in either the English or scientific species or ecological community name are displayed (e.g., Flammulated Owl OR Hypnum pratense, or lodgepole pine/water sedge/peat mosses OR Pinus contorta/Carex aquatilis/Sphagnum spp.).

Other Identifier

NOTE: You cannot search the BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer (BCSEE) e-Library using other identifiers.

If you enter a value in the Other Identifier field, a search of other identifiers is performed. Depending on the e-Libraries you select to search, other identifiers include:

• old reference number, short description or long description (EcoCat);
• report number or other identifiers (EIRS BDP and EPD);
• Dewey classification, local classification (MoFR Library), ISBN or ISSN (EIRS BDP and EPD, and MoFR Library); and/or
• SPI projects (SIWE).

You can use the % or * wildcards to expand the search. For example, you can enter part of a report number preceded and/or followed by the % or * wildcards to search other identifiers in EIRS Biodiversity/Environmental Information Resources e-Library (EIRS – BDP).

Keyword

If you enter a value in the Keyword field, a search of keywords is performed. This search is for all words entered, not exact phrase.

Enter all or a portion of the keyword (it may be preceded and/or followed by the % or * wildcard) to search.

NOTE: Depending on the e-Libraries you select to search, keywords may include author, title, short description, long description, abstract, report number, publication date, publisher, scientific or English species names or more. Refer to the table in the Appendix of the Cross-Linked Information Resources (CLIR) Help (PDF 1.18MB) document for additional information regarding keywords.

Results

View and Download Document

To open (view) a document, left click on the title.

To copy the URL (shortcut), right click on the title.

NOTE: To copy the URL (web address) for a document (when digital version is available) and send or paste it into a document, DO NOT copy the URL showing in the Address field while the document is open. This will result in “session expired” and will not link you to the document. In the Results, RIGHT click on the document “Title” then LEFT click “Copy Shortcut” to copy the URL to your clipboard.

NOTE: For some libraries, some publications with large files have been broken into subdocuments to allow faster downloading. This will be indicated by [multiple] following the title. The title will be linked to a page with live links to all related subdocuments.

For other libraries, an index page containing hyperlinks to the various sections of the document and/or related files is displayed. If this page is displayed, click on the hyperlink for the document and/or related files you wish to view. The applicable file is displayed.

If a document has not been broken into several parts, the applicable document or image is displayed when the hyperlink is clicked.

To download a document

To save a copy of a document, while the file is open in your browser window, either choose File>Save As and save to a folder of your choice, OR click on the browser icon of a floppy disk.

For addtional information on printing and exporting results, see the CLIR User Guide (1.18MB PDF)

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