WAIS


What Is WAIS?

WAIS (pronounced "wayz") is an acronym for Wide Area Information Server.  WAIS is an information retrieval tool that is great for searching through indexed material and finding items based on what they contain.


How WAIS Works?

WAIS was developed as a way to query and retrieve information.  What WAIS does is take the users search term(s) and at a blinding speed, sort word-by-word through all the files in the database and retrieves those files that contains the user's search term(s).  The items retrieved are ranked based on how many times the term(s) occur and those with the most occurances are displayed at the top of the list.  WAIS is like walking into a library with a quote and having the library automatically check out everything that contains it regardless of format.


Searching WAIS

WAIS is denoted by the <?> sign.  By selecting an item off a menu that ends with that sign you will be prompted with the following box:

+---------------------------------------WAIS Index-----------------------------------------------+
|                                                                                                |
| Words to search for                                                                            |
|                                                                                                |
|                                                                                                |
|                                                                                                |
| [Help: ^-]  [Cancel: ^G]                                                                       |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
  
Type in the terms you want to search for and press enter.  Then just sit back and wait while WAIS does the searching for you.


Search Logic Rules For WAIS


1) Single word searches.

     example: literacy
     result:  finds records containing the word literacy

2) Multiple word searches.

     example: adult literacy
     result:  finds records containing either word (adult OR
              literacy) or both words

3) Literal searches with single or double quotes.

     example: "adult literacy"
     result:  finds records containing the phrase "adult literacy";
              if a record contains both words but not together in
              the specified order, it is not returned

4) Partial (root) word searches with the  *  character.  The
   asterisk must be at the end of the word.

     example: librar*
     result:  finds records containing words that begin with "librar",
              including library, libraries, and librarians.

5) Words with boolean operators and, or, and not.

     example: adult and literacy
     result:  finds records containing both words (unlike "adult
              literacy" the words do not have to be adjacent or
              in a specified order)

     example: adult or literacy
     result:  finds records containing either or both words

     example: adult not literacy
     result:  finds records containing adult but excluding those
              which also contain literacy

     Rules of Logic:  Any OR directly before a NOT is ignored.
                      An AND is implied before every NOT.
                      You cannot do a search with a single NOT term.
                      NOT and AND take precedence before OR.