Altavista: Required Terms

[Dorothy Day]

On Mon, 24 Mar 1997, *Kate McGraw wrote:

> Sarah,
> Your message didn't match my own study of Altavista searches so I just 
> went and checked. When I entered
> +nesbeitt +library +bridgewater
> I got a retrieval of 6 hits. It was only when I left out the + signs that 
> retrieval went up to 30,000. 

Sarah, 
	Check to make sure there is no space between the + and the
following word; it affects only a word (or phrase enclosed in "") that
follows immediately with no intervening space. Kate's description of her
search results indicates that your + had no effect, while hers did.

	Dorothy Day


> 
> On Mon, 24 Mar 1997, Sarah Nesbeitt, Maxwell Library wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Example:  The search "+nesbeitt" retrieves 468 documents.  (I realize these
> > numbers aren't exact.)
> > 
> > The search "+nesbeitt +library" retrieves approximately "3000 documents."
> > 
> > The search "+nesbeitt +library +bridgewater" retrieves approximately "30000
> > documents."   Etc.  You'd think that forcing more required terms would narrow 
> > the search, not widen it.
> > 

---
Dorothy Day			
School of Library and Information Science
Indiana University
day at indiana.edu