How to Search the Institutional Database and Online Catalog
(Online Catalog and IM Database, Nov. 2003 Rev. 02)
NOTE: To access the PAHO Headquarters Library Online Catalog, first access the Institutional Memory (IM) Database, then change the System default under Item Cat1 from "PAHO Institutional Memory" to "ANY."
Table of Contents
Accessing the Database
Type in the URL for the PAHO Web and then click on "Institutional Memory" found on right hand index at the top. A search grid appears, ready for you to begin searching. See Figure 1.
 Figure 1 A. HOW AND WHEN TO SEARCH THE WHOLE RECORD USING "WORDS AND PHRASES"
Searches are more focused if you use the lines labelled Author, Title, Subject or Series as outlined below. You can search all the words in all of the records in the database at the same time by clicking the cursor into the first line labelled Words or Phrases. This is a useful approach for searching when you are looking for something very specific or for a bit of information that is not part of the author, title or subject.
 Figure 2 For example:
If you enter words such as "multicultural populations", the result will be publications including those words in the title or in the text, such as in the summary. See Figure 2.
The following book will be found: "Executive summary: strengthening and development of traditional health systems: organization and delivery of health services in multicultural populations."
If you enter "50p" you will see all records of books or documents that have assigned "50p" for number of pages. If you type in "reforma del sector salud" you will find all documentation which would have that combination of words in any place in the bibliographic record, including words from the summary.
B. HOW TO SEARCH FOR AN AUTHOR
Click the cursor into the second line of the search grid labelled Author and type in the last name of the author. See Figure 3.
 Figure 3 Click on "Search catalog" or press Enter.
If the database has an exact match for what you entered, you will see a list of brief bibliographic references. Click on View to see the FULL format reference. At the top of the screen, click on Forward to continue through the list of references. Click on Backward to go back to the brief list or on New Search
to start over. As you view the list of references, you can mark the ones you want to print or
download by clicking in the small box next to "Check here to mark
this record for Print/Capture."
If you want to look for all authors having last name Gonzalez and first initial B, enter the following information in the Author grid as ”Gonzalez B” and go down to Search Limits and select Partial using the pull down menu next to Match On option.
If you are not sure how a last name is mispelled, put in the beginning letters and use the ”$” to truncate the root of the name. For example, Smith$ will give you all Smith and Smithburn as well.
Tip:
When combining authors with "AND" or "OR"
you will need to type the other authors in the other grids, which although not labelled "Author" can be changed to "Author" by clicking on the small box with an arrow. Then you can type your next author using the boolean "AND" or "OR" which are the most common options.
C. HOW TO SEARCH FOR A CORPORATE AUTHOR
Often instead of the name of a person as author, you may have the name of an
institution, agency or program. To search for these "corporate authors", click the cursor into the second line of the search grid labelled Author and type in one or two words from the name of the institution. See Figure 4.
 Figure 4 Click on "Search " or press Enter.
If the database has an exact match for what you entered, you will see a list of brief bibliographic references. Click on View to see the FULL reference. At the top of the screen, click on Forward or Backward to move through the list of references. Click on Go Back to go back to the brief list or on New Search to start over. As you view the list of references, you can mark the ones you want to print, download or email by clicking in the small box next to "Check here to mark this record for Print/Capture".
Tips:
Corporate author names can be complicated, so you will have better success with
searches if you type in a just a few words which are in the name for sure and which are
spelled correctly. For example, for the "Pan American Health Organization. Special Program
on Health Analysis", just type in the two words "Pan" and "analysis".
Names of conferences, workshops and other meetings are considered to be "conference authors" and can be searched in this way. Often the name of the city where the meeting
took place is a handy way to find the citation quickly.
D. HOW TO SEARCH FOR A TITLE
Click the cursor into the third line of the search grid labelled Title and type a few words from the title. You do not need to type in the entire title. See Figure 5.
 Figure 5 Tip:
If there is an unusual word in the title, you can often find the record very quickly with one word. For example for the title: "Mortality trends for diabetes mellitus in Jamaica", typing in
mellitus and Jamaica will bring a few records up.
Click on "Search catalog" or press Enter.
If the database has an exact match for what you entered, you will see a list of brief bibliographic references. Click on View to see the FULL reference. At the top of the screen, click on Forward or Backward to move through the list of references. Click on Go Back to go back to the brief list or on New Search to start over. As you view the list of references, you can mark the ones you want to print, or download by clicking in the small box next to "Check here to mark this record for Print/Capture".
E. HOW TO SEARCH FOR A SUBJECT
Some Information on Subject Headings:
Using subject headings is more precise than using keywords (as in Section A) in searches; keywords can have variations in spelling or tense while subject headings are always uniform. Please note that at the moment, the database is searchable using Spanish Subject Headings only.
PAHO Library staff assign uniform subject headings to each record in the database, using a carefully controlled thesaurus DeCS (Descriptores en Ciencias de la Salud) which is the equivalent of the Spanish translation of the MeSH (Medical Subject Headings, published by the United States National Library of Medicine) and which also includes Public Health terminology. DeCS is maintained by a PAHO information center, namely, the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), located in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Many big medical or public health libraries in the world use MeSH subject headings in their library databases (the same subject headings used in the MEDLINE database). Therefore, PAHO Library uses the MeSH subject headings but translated into Spanish plus other public health terms, also in Spanish, terms that are incorporated by BIREME.
Sometimes it is difficult to know what would be the best subject heading for your search. Some useful tips to determine the best subject headings are:
1. Ask a librarian or information professional to help you.
2. Check in the online Spanish DeCS:
or, just to help to direct your thoughts to the right term in English, you can go to the English list of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) issued by the US National Library
of Medicine. The ”Mesh Browser” is available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/meshbrowser.cgi
3. Find one record that is particularly relevant and look at its subject headings. Begin
a new search using one of these subject headings
Once you have chosen your subject heading, click the cursor into the fourth line of the search grid labelled Subject and type a few subject words. See Figure 6.
 Figure 6 Click on "Search catalog or press Enter".
If the database has an exact match for what you entered, you will see a list of brief bibliographic references. Click on View to see the FULLl reference. At the top of the screen, click on Forward or Backward to move through the list of references. Click on Go Back to go back to the brief list or on New Search to start over. As you view the list of references, you can mark the ones you want to print, or download, clicking in the small box next to "Check here to mark this record for Print/Capture".
If you type in one keyword, as for example the word ”Servicios” in the subject grid, the system will search all Subject headings that have the word Servicios. However, if you want to look for all Subjects headings beginning with the word Servicios, enter the word ”Servicios” in the Subject grid and go down to Search Limits and select Partial using the pull down menu next to Match On option. System will refer you to the browse dictionary to look for the list of subjects beginning with that word, from where you can make your selection.
Tip:
If you need to search by combining different Subjects using "AND" or "OR"you can go to the next grid line and choose to change to "Subject" by clicking on the small box with the pull down arrow. Then you can type your next Subject Heading using the boolean "AND" or "OR", which are the most common boolean operators.
F. HOW TO SEARCH FOR A SERIES
Click the cursor in the fifth line of the search grid labelled "Series" and type in the name of the series. You do not need to type the entire title of the series. You can include a particular volume in the same grid. For example: PAHO Scientific Publication 569. The number "569" could refer to the Volume or a page indicated in the record. See Figure 7. You can also search the same elements under "Words or Phrases". You can combine the series title with any other element (author, title, subject headings, year, language, etc.).
Tip: You may type in the year, volume, issue number, page or page range (could be all of them, with spaces in between) together with the name of the series ”Boletín Epidemiológico” in the series grid. e.g. Boletín Epidemiológico 1991 12 9
Figure 7
Tip: If you need to combine the title of a serie with an author and the year of that serie, type the last name of the author in the "Author" grid and the year in the "Series" grid. See Figure 8.
Figure 8
G. HOW TO SEARCH FOR PAHO DOCUMENTATION (INSTITUTIONAL MEMORY)
The are many ways to find PAHO publications or technical documents, which are part of the
Institutional Memory Database.
The fastest way would be to Click on "Author" if it is known to you. Or you can search by one or more individual words of the title by clicking in the first line of the search grid labelled "Words or Phrases".
You can also type the title in the grid labelled "Title". You can also search by Subject headings or series title or even words in the summary.
You can also search by document number in "Words or Phrases". Since the document number is the same on all language versions, when you type it in, if the document has been translated into English, French and Portuguese, you will get three hits, one for each language version.
Tip:
To find out whether the bibliographic reference is available in fulltext, look for the line in the bibliographic record labelled "Electronic Access" which provides access to the electronic fulltext of the document.
1. Finding PAHO Governing Body Conference Policy Documents
Following are the names of the PAHO Governing Conferences whose Document numbering system uses Spanish acronyms for identification and searching. The three conferences are as follows:
Directing Council (CD) - Currently searchable using Subject = Consejo Directivo
Executive Committee (CE) - Currently searchable using Subject = Comite Ejecutivo
Pan American Sanitary Conference (CSP) - Currently searching using Subject= Conferencia Sanitaria Panamericana
- By Document Number:
If you know the Document Number, click the cursor into the first line of the search grid labelled "Words or Phrases.". Type in the Document number, for example CD43/5
- By Type of Meeting:
Type in the grid labelled "Subject", any of the following Index terms (must be in Spanish): CONSEJO DIRECTIVO, or COMITE EJECUTIVO or CONFERENCIA SANITARIA PANAMERICANA and combine the meeting name with any other element from Title, Document Number, Year, Language, etc. to find the specific reference.
- By Subject Headings:
Type in the grid labelled "Subject" any of the subject headings you wish. At the moment, the subject headings are searchable in Spanish. Please consult the Spanish DeCS: (If the heading does not appear, it might be because it is not in the DeCs authorized list or in the PAHO descriptors to the subject index by the Library. In that case, just search by "Words or Phrases."
- By Title:
Type title words in the grid labelled Title
- By Year, Language, by Meeting Number, etc. Type in the information needed under "Words or Phrases" and combine with the other elements as needed.
See Figure 9.
 Figure 9 2. Finding PAHO Resolutions and Decisions
- By numbers:
Click the cursor into the first line of the search grid labelled "Word or Phrases". Type in the PAHO Resolution Number "between quotes", for
example "CD43.R1" because the system does not recognize the dot in ".R1"
See Figure 10.
Figure 10
- By titles, subjects, country, year, language, etc. Follow the general indications given for searching by those elements in Sections A, C, D.
See Figure 11.
Figure 11
Tips:
a. The PAHO Library has made it possible to combine the Subject Index term "RESOLUCIONES OPS" or "PAHO RESOLUTIONS" (to be entered in the "Subject" grid), for combination with any other element such title, subject, year, and others.
b. You can also use the Subject Index term used for the three PAHO Conferences: CONSEJO DIRECTIVO or COMITE EJECUTIVO or CONFERENCIA SANITARIA PANAMERICANA (in Spanish) with "RESOLUCIONES OPS" or "PAHO RESOLUTIONS" and combine it with any other elements. Search results will be in English or Spanish.
Tip: You can then combine with any word from the text of the resolution or decision, either in Spanish or English.
3. Finding articles from PAHO series or journals.
This material can be found by searching in the regular way, as mentioned in the different sections of this manual. For example, you can type in combinations of authors (preferably, put last name only), titles, subject headings, keywords, year, language, etc. with the name of the series (you do not need to put the full title). See Figure 12.
 Figure 12 This material can be found by searching in the regular way. You can combine by Authors, titles, subject headings, keywords, year, language, etc. as mentioned in the corresponding sections of this manual. Please follow the general directions at the beginning of those Sections.
5. Finding PAHO Online Fulltext Documents
If you want to limit your retrieval only to records that have electronic texts, you must combine your search (Author, Title, Keywords, Subject Headings, etc.), with the words "HTTP." The result will be limited to documents that are available in full text.
H. HOW TO USE SEARCH OPTIONS TO LIMIT YOUR SEARCH
If you get too many hits on a search, using the Search Limits displayed below in the diagram will help to limit your search. See Figure 13.
 Figure 13
1. In Pubyear:
You can specify one year of publication i.e. 1994
or you can specify that the year of publication be greater than or less than a year i.e. > 1994 or < 1994
or you can specify a range of publication years i.e. 1992-1994.
2. Language.
Records are entered in the database in Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. You can choose the language of your interest and combine it with your search.
3. Sort by date:
There are the following options: By Author, Subject or Title. In addition you may also choose the two options, "Old to New" AND "New to Old". Choosing "Old to New" will sort the records in ascending order. Choosing "New to Old" will sort the records in descending order.
I. SOME ADDITIONAL SEARCH INFORMATION
Using a truncation symbol:
The truncation symbol for the database is the dollar sign "$." You can truncate words when searching to pick up all forms of the word. For example, "adolesc$" will bring up adolescence as well as adolescent.
Finding Country information:
Click the cursor into the search grid labelled Subject, then type in the name of the country. If you get too many hits, use the search options to limit your search.
Finding charters, declarations or conventions:
The names of charters, declarations, and conventions have been entered in the bibliographic records. Click the cursor into the first line of the search grid labelled Words or
Phrases. Type a few words from the name of the charter. For example: If you type in "Alma Ata Declaration", the result will show records of documents which
contain this declaration.
Finding audiovisual material:
Limit the search to itemtype: "audio-visual." Or you may search by the classification number of the audio-visual by entering the number in the Words or Phrase field, such as: AV 020.
J. PRINTING AND DOWNLOADING
As you view the lists of references, you can mark the ones you want to save, print and/or download by clicking in the small box next to Check here to mark this record for Print/Capture. Or you may decide to save and print one record or all the records in a list. Clike the first box of in the set, then click on the "Print/Capture" button at the top of the screen. See Figure 14.
 Figure 14 The screen will change, and if you marked any records, the numbers of the records your marked
will appear in the top blank line. If you marked just one record, click the cursor into the
line and type in the range of numbers to be printed. The request to save or print will not work if this line is left blank.
For example:
If the line reads "Out of 10 records, print/capture numbers:" and you want to print all the records, type "1-10" in the blank line, or just type in those you need e.g. 5, 8-9, 15. See Figure 15.
To save the records, click on the Save button. When the screen view come up, click on File then Save as and specify the drive and file name as usual.
To print the records, click on the Print button. When the screen view come up, click on File then Print.
 Figure 15 | 
