SAE Knowledge Solutions

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SAE Digital Library Demo Script

SAESociety of Automotive EngineersSAE World Headquarters400 Commonwealth DriveWarrendale, PA 15096-0001 USATel: 724-776-4841Fax: 724-776-0790

The Digital Library (DL) offers powerful searching capabilities to enable you to find exactly the information you need on mobility technology. The advanced search engine offers superb flexibility and precision.

You can use the basic search box located at the top of the screen for general searches of all of the information in the database.

In addition, there are three search forms available to suit your particular searching needs: Field Search, Advanced Search, and Expert Search.

Helpful Hint: It’s a good idea to hit the Clear button before each search (unless you want to modify an existing search query).

In the examples presented in this document, quotes are used to indicate which words, numbers, etc. are being used as search terms. You do not need to enter quotes when using the product, unless you are entering multiple words that should be treated as a phrase.

FIELD SEARCH

The Field Search allows you to narrow your search to particular fields of the database. It allows you to search for a term or number within a particular data field of a document or search a limited portion of the database, rather than the entire summary of every document.

You can search by -document number-document title-cross reference-abstract-publisher-author-country of publication-publication date-information group (document type)-language-index term-affiliation

Document Number Example:In Field Search, enter “J 1930” in the Document Number field, including a space between the J and the number.Press the Search button.The DL will display the record for this standard in the hit list.Click on the document number link to see the full record.If you know the document number of the document you want to see, the Field Search gives you a quick and easy way to find the exact document you need. You won’t need to sift through numerous records to find it. Many standards customers, in particular, frequently search by document number. Standards customers tend to be very familiar with the numbers of standards and refer to them by number rather than name. So, the Document Number field is especially useful to them.When searching standards by document number, be sure to enter a space in between the alpha characters and the number. Examples:J 949 (not J949)AMS 4328AS 9006

Document Title Example:In Field Search, enter “Automotive Steel Castings” in the Title field.In the Information Group box, use the drop-down menu to select Standards.Press the Search button.The DL will display the record for this standard, J 435.Click on the document number link to see the full record.If you know the exact title of a document you want to see, the Field Search allows you to easily find it by searching on the Title field. You won’t need to scan through numerous records in the hit list. Also, if you want to see a list of all the documents with a particular word in the title, you can search that word in the Title field. For instance, enter “diesel” in the Title field and press the search button.

Publication Date Example:You can use the Publication Date field to narrow your search to a particular date or date range.In Field Search, enter “03-01-2000” in the Publication Date field. Follow the format MM-DD-YYYY.Press the Search button.The DL will display a hit list of all the documents published March 1, 2000.If you know the date that a particular document of interest was published, you can find it easily by using the Publication Date field.

Date Range Example:In Field Search, enter “> 01-01-1970 < 01-01-1980” in the Publication Date field.Use the greater than > and less than < symbols to specify a date range.Press the Search button.

The DL will display search results of all documents published during the 1970s.The date range feature gives you a convenient way of searching for documents published during a certain time period. For instance, if you want to conduct historical research on safety technology occurring in a particular decade, date range searching is very useful.

Cross References

In many cases, standards documents reference other standards. Using the cross reference field, you can search for all documents that reference a particular standard. Cross references apply to technical standards, not to technical papers or magazine articles.

Cross Reference Example:In Field Search, enter “J 1587” in the Cross Reference field.Press the Search button.The DL will display all of the standards that reference J 1587. Click the links to the document records to view the full document records. You will note that J 1587 will appear in the Cross Reference field in each of the document summaries.By conducting a cross reference search, you can find all documents that reference a particular standard. By researching the standards that refer to it, you can gain a greater depth of knowledge on the technical area of interest and identify the connections and possible transferable technology between standards.

Abstracts

The abstract is a summary of the information covered in the document and is often the most useful place in the bibliographic record for finding descriptive information and for identifying the exact subject matter of the document. Many people who are interested in technical papers tend to search by topic rather than document number and find the abstract to be an important field in which to find pertinent information.

Abstract Example:In Field Search, enter “camshaft” in the Abstract field.Press the Search button.The DL will display the records for all documents that contain the word camshaft in the abstract.The Abstract field is often the most useful place to search when you are looking for research on a particular engineering topic. Depending on your needs and how precisely or broadly you want to search, the Abstract field can be more productive than the Title field because it contains more details.

Publishers

The Global Mobility Database, which forms the foundation of the Digital Library, is an index to mobility information published by more than 30 standards producers and technical publishers from around the world. You can use the Publisher field to restrict your searching to a particular publisher or search across all publishers.

Publisher Example:In Field Search, click on the drop-down menu of the Publisher field. Select “Automotive Technology Group.”Press the Search button.The DL will display the records for all documents contained in the database that are published by the Automotive Technology Group.The drop-down menu in the Publisher field makes it easy for you to quickly select the publisher you are interested in—you don’t have to worry about keying in the name, making sure the spelling is correct, or determining whether to use abbreviations or full names of publishers. The Publisher field gives you more precision in your searching because it allows you to focus in on the publisher of interest to you. It also allows you to search All publishers at the same time, giving you broader search capabilities.

Author Example:

Sometimes an individual author gains prestige in a technological field and is recognized throughout the engineering community as being a technical expert. The author search allows you to see all documents written by a particular person.

In Field Search, enter David Viano.Press the Search button.The DL will display the records for documents written by David Viano of General Motors. If you know of a particular author who has written about a topic of interest to you, it can be very useful to search on the author’s name to find all the papers he or she has written. Some authors are very well-known and highly respected in their field, and it can be very valuable to be able to easily pinpoint everything they have written on a particular topic. The Author field gives you an easy way to find the literature written by a specific author.Note: You may need to search various forms of the author’s name to retrieve full results. For instance, if you conduct a search on D. C. Viano you will get additional results. Sometimes it can be more productive to search on just the last name, then view the results to see the various ways the author’s name is listed.Note: Author searching does not apply to Standards.

Country of Publication Example:In Field Search, enter “Germany” in the Country of Publication field. Press the Search button.The DL will display records for all documents in the database published in Germany.If you are interested in the technological research being conducted in a certain country, the Country of Publication field is very valuable. It can help you gain competitive intelligence by finding out what technological advances other countries are making and what research they are conducting.

Information Group Example 1:

Information Group refers to the document type, i.e. Reports, Books, Journals, Standards, and Technical Papers. In Field Search, click on the drop-down menu of the Information Group field.Select “Standards.”Enter the word “airbag” in the Abstract field.Press the Search button.The DL will display airbag standards.The Information Group field gives you a convenient and easy way to find search results of a particular document type. For instance, if you are interested in Standards, you can easily narrow your search to just Standards documents.

Language Example:In Field Search, enter the word “German” in the Language field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents published in German.The Language field allows you to easily search for documents published in a certain language.

Index Term Example:All documents in the Digital Library are indexed by professional indexers (who have engineering and information science backgrounds and extensive indexing experience). Several index terms are assigned to each document, to help you pinpoint the exact information you need.In Field Search, enter “diesel” in the Index Term field.Press the Search button.The DL library will display records for all documents indexed with the term “diesel.”Using index terms can be one of the most valuable and precise methods of searching. Index terms have been assigned to documents in a consistent and professional manner by indexers with solid backgrounds in engineering/information science and many years of experience. Index terms help you to narrow your search to find exactly the information you need. Typically when searching with index terms, results will be narrower than when searching terms in the abstract.

Affiliation Example:In addition to being able to search by author, you can search by the author’s affiliation.In Field Search, enter “Cummins” in the Affiliation field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for all documents written by an author affiliated with Cummins.If you want to find out what topics a competitor is researching, or find out what a prestigious engineering library is devoting its funds to, the Affiliation field is an excellent place to start. You can do benchmarking research to see what other similar companies are working on and how their projects and findings compare with those of your own company.Note: Affiliation searching does not apply to Standards.

Multiple Field SearchingThe DL allows you to combine fields and terms for very specific searching.In Field Search, enter the term “engines” in the Abstract field. Enter the term “diesel” in the Title field.Enter the date “2002” in the Publication Date field. Enter the term “fuel” in the Index Term field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents published in 2002 with an index term of fuel and with the word engines in the abstract and the word diesel in the title. The DL offers you significant flexibility in your searching. You can conduct searches using multiple fields to gain more precision in your search results. You can narrow down what could potentially be an overwhelming number of records to a manageable list that is more relevant to your needs.

Updates Search Example:In Field Search, put a checkmark in the box next to Updates (near the middle of the Field Search box).Press the Search button.The DL will display the records for all documents added to the database during the past 30 days. If timeliness is important to you, searching on Updates is a great way of keeping up-to-date on the newest documents being published. You’ll be able to find the most current standards and the latest technical papers presented at the most recent meetings, even if you were unable to attend. You can, of course, narrow your update search to particular topics by entering terms in fields such as abstract, title, index term).

Cancelled Search Example:In Field Search, put a checkmark in the box next to Cancelled.Press the Search button. The DL will display a list of all cancelled standards.Information on cancelled standards can be important to researchers. Engineers often need historical standards information to know how a part or component or system was developed at a particular time – what standard was used in its development. They need to evaluate how the new standard relates to the standards used in the past. By searching on cancelled standards, you can find out when the cancelled standard was published, when it was cancelled, and whether it has been superseded by another document, and if so, which document it has been superseded by. For standards that have been cancelled from 2002 to the present, you can link to the full text.If a new engineer comes on board and has been given a project, he needs to know the history of the project and what standard was used in the past to build that piece of equipment, hardware, etc. It is beneficial for engineers to have an historical perspective, to be able to review what has been done in the past to have a better understanding of future directions in technology.

Full-Text

The Digital Library contains full text PDFs for SAE Technical Papers from 1998 to the present and all SAE Standards. If you want to limit your search to those technical papers with full-text PDFs, here’s an easy way to search:

In Field Search, enter “> 1997” in the Publication Date field.In the Publisher field drop-down menu, select Society of Automotive Engineers.In the Information Group drop-down menu, select Technical Papers.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for technical papers published by SAE from 1998 to the present. These records will link to the full-text PDF.

If you want to limit your search to SAE standards:In the Publisher field drop-down menu, select Society of Automotive Engineers.In the Information Group drop-down menu, select Standards.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for standards published by SAE. These records will link to the full-text PDF.

Having access to the full text of documents is one of the greatest benefits of the Digital Library. You no longer have to submit a request to your librarian or document center and then wait to receive your materials. You no longer have to go to your library and wade through paper copies of documents stashed away in filing cabinets or binders. You don’t have to worry about trying to find paper copies that might have been lost or borrowed. With the Digital Library, you have quick and convenient electronic access to full-text SAE technical papers from 1998 to the present as well as all SAE standards, right from your desktop. Searching the Digital Library is fast and convenient and saves you significant time and effort. It enables you to move forward with your research or design project more quickly, eliminating roadblocks to accessing vital information, and enhancing your speed-to-market potential.

Modify Search Query Example:The DL makes it easy for you to modify your search query.In Field Search, enter “airbag” in the Document Title field.Enter “safety” in the Index Term field. Enter “restraint” in the Abstract field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents indexed by the term “safety” and with the word airbag in the title and the word restraint in the abstract.To modify your search, click on Field Search.Note that your previously entered terms still appear in the search form.Let’s say you want to focus on historical documents published in the 1970s. In the Publication Date field, enter “> 1969 < 1980”.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents published in the 1970s, indexed by the term safety, and with the word airbag in the title and the word restraint in the abstract.

This feature makes it very easy for you to modify your search, saving you time and effort. You do not have to re-key all of the data you already entered in the previous search. Your search query remains in place, making it easy for you to make a quick change in the data or to add a new field as part of your search.

Maximum Hits

You have the ability to set the maximum number of hits you want to see in your search. You can choose from 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, and 3000 hits.

Example 1:In Field Search, enter “engines” in the Title field.Enter “injection” in the Abstract field.Set the maximum number of hits to 1000.Press the Search button.The DL will display up to 1000 records for documents with the word engines in the title and the word injection in the abstract.At the top of the screen, it will display 1-20 of 1000 results. This tells you that there are at least 1000 results for this search.Return to the Field Search.Keeping the same search criteria, set the maximum number of hits to 2000.Press the Search button.This time, at the top of the screen, it will display 1-20 of 1053 results, for example. (This number will vary as new documents are added.)This shows you the full number of records retrieved for the search.(If your maximum number of hits setting exceeds the actual number of hits your search actually retrieves, then the system will show you at the top of your screen how many total hits match your search.)The maximum hits feature allows you to control how many hits you receive, giving you flexibility to suit your specific needs. For instance, if you are doing a large research project, you may want to see a large volume of results. You may also want to see the total number of results that meet your search criteria. If you are trying to be more narrow and want to focus on a specific detail, you may want to see fewer results. The DL allows you to choose. You can set maximum hits with any of the search options in the DL: Basic, Field, Advanced, and Expert.

ADVANCED SEARCH

The Advanced Search form allows you to enter more than one term and apply Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT) to the search. The entire database can be searched (the default) or you can limit your search to one or more of the data fields listed.

Let’s say you want to search the words “stability” and “control” across the same search field. Whereas the Field Search accommodates only one term per field, the Advanced Search form can accommodate more than one term.

Example: (AND logic)In Advanced Search, enter “stability” in line 1 and “control” in line 2. Use the default AND.Set your maximum hits to 2000.Check the Abstract box.Press the Search button.

The DL will display records for documents that contain both the words stability AND control in their abstract.Using the Advanced Search, you can narrow your search results for greater precision.

Example: (OR logic)In Advanced Search, enter “piston” in line 1.Click the OR button.Enter “exhaust” in line 2.Check the Title box.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents that have EITHER piston OR exhaust in the title.Using the Advanced Search, you can broaden your search results by using Boolean OR logic.

Example: (NOT logic)If you are interested in finding documents on modeling of all types of engines except diesel:In Advanced Search, enter “modeling” in line 1.Use the default AND.Enter “engine” in line 2.Click the NOT button.Enter “diesel” in line 3.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents that have modeling and engine in the bibliographic information but not diesel.This same search could also be run limiting the terms to particular fields of the bibliographic record, for instance, title, abstract, or index term.The Advanced Search gives you the flexibility to use both AND and NOT logic together in the same search for greater precision. (You can also use OR and NOT logic together.)

Example: (XOR logic)In Advanced Search, enter “coil” in line 1.Choose XOR and enter “insulation” in line 3. Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents that have EITHER coil OR insulation in the bibliographic information but NOT both.

Note: If you use two words together in Advanced Search, you do not need to enclose them in quotation marks. The two words will automatically be treated as a phrase. In Field Search, if you want to enter two words to be searched as a phrase, enclose them in quotation marks.

In the Advanced Search, you can limit your search to one or more of the data fields listed.Example:Enter the term “catalyst” in line 1 of the Advanced Search.

Click the Title and Abstract fields.Press the Search Button.The DL will display records for documents that have the word catalyst in BOTH the Title and the Abstract field.

Meeting Name and Location

One advantage of the Advanced Search is the ability to search by Meeting Location or Meeting Name (these apply only to technical papers).

Meeting Location Example:Let’s say you know that some important research was presented at an aerospace meeting in the 1970s but you don’t know the name of the meeting. However, you do know that it was held in Boston.In Advanced Search, enter “Boston” in line 1.Click on the Meeting Location field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for all documents presented at meetings held in Boston.Scan through the paper numbers for documents presented in the 1970s (or sort by publication date to find those from the 1970s). Click on one of the documents, for instance, 780519. The document record will show you that the name of the meeting is International Air Transportation Meeting. You can then search using the Meeting Name field to find all papers from that meeting.The DL gives you a variety of avenues for accessing information. You can come in from many different directions to get to the exact piece of data you need. If you know only the location of a meeting, for instance, you have an easy way to search which will lead you to the information you are looking for.

Meeting Example:In Advanced Search, enter “Earthmoving” in line 1. Click on the Meeting Name field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for all technical papers presented at the Earthmoving Industry Conferences. If you are trying to find an important document or documents that were presented at a certain meeting, you can use the Meeting Name field to easily find all the papers presented there.

EXPERT SEARCH

The Expert Search form provides the most sophisticated and detailed searching method available. It allows for the narrowest criteria to fine-tune your search results and allows you to apply Boolean logic to more than one field at once. There is no limit to the length of your query. Expert Search gives you the freedom to combine as many terms and fields as you wish, and tie them together with Boolean logic.

If you wish to perform an OR search between fields, or if your search term is longer than the line allows in Advanced Search or Field Search, you must use Expert Search.

In Expert Search, you can search for term A and B, but not C, within the abstracts, while at the same time limiting your search to one or more document types published within a certain timeframe.

Expert Search Example:

From the left column under the heading “Select Desired Field”, select Publication Date. The search syntax will appear in the right column under “Search Query Terms”. Enter “> 2001” after the colon and before the closing bracket. Enter the word “and” outside of the closing bracket.Select the Abstract field and enter “braking or stability” after the colon. Enter the word “and” outside of the closing bracket.Select the Information Group field and enter “technical papers”. Enter the word “and”. Select the Publisher field and enter “Society of Automotive Engineers.” Enter the word “and”.Select the Index Term field and enter “safety or brakes”. Enter the word “not”.Select the Meeting Name field and enter “Brake Colloquium”. Press the Search button.The DL will display records for technical papers published by SAE from 2002 to the present that contain either braking or stability in the abstract, that have been indexed by the term safety or brakes, and that were not presented at the Brake Colloquium Conference.As you can see, the Expert Search provides you with tremendous flexibility and freedom to create search strings that are as long and detailed as you wish, to gain as much precision in your searching as possible.

SEARCH RESULTS

Navigating Search Results

After conducting a search, the DL will display your search results, or “hit list.” Twenty hits are displayed on a page. Click on “More” or the “single” down arrow to advance to the next 20 hits. Click on the “double” down arrow to jump to the last page of hits. Use the “single” up arrow to go to the previous page. Use the “double” up arrow to return to the first page of the search results.

Excerpts

In Field Search, enter “brakes” in the Abstract field.Press the Search button.The DL will display records for documents with the term brakes in the abstract.At the top of your search results, use the Excerpt drop-down menu to select from short, medium, or long.The DL will display part of or the entire abstract for the documents in the search results.The Excerpt feature can be very helpful if you would like to see the abstracts at a glance, without having to click into the document record. It gives you the flexibility of choosing a short, medium, or long view. You can determine how much of the abstract you want to see. Also, if you prefer not to see the abstracts in the search results, you can easily turn off the Excerpt feature, so you can quickly scan the list of titles.

Sorting

In a Basic Search, search results are presented in order of relevancy (greatest number of terms matched). In the Field, Advanced, and Expert Searches, search results are presented in document number order.However, you have several different options for arranging your search results. They can be sorted by:-document number-publication date-document title-information group (document type)

Publication Date Example:In Field Search, enter “child” in the Abstract field and “restraint” in the Index Term field.Set the Information Group menu to Technical Papers.Press the Search button.The DL will display (in document number order) all records for technical papers that contain the word child in the abstract and have been indexed by the term restraint.At the top of your search results page, click on the ascending arrow to the left of the Publication Date heading. The DL will sort the listing in ascending order by publication date, starting with the oldest date (from past to present).

Sorting by ascending publication date can help you focus on the early years of research first, if you are interested in historical information. You can also ascertain the amount of literature published over the years on a mobility topic, so you can gain a better understanding of when the most research was conducted on this technology. You can also easily focus on particular years of information if you are interested in a certain time frame, while still being able to see the entire list of publication dates.

At the top of your search results page, click on the descending arrow to the right of the Publication Date heading.The DL will sort the listing in descending order by publication date, starting with the most recent date (from present to past).If you are interested in timely, current information, sorting by descending publication date can help you focus on the most recent years of research first.

Information Group Example:In the Basic Search box, enter the term “gage.”Press the Search button.The DL will present results in document number order.Press the ascending arrow next to the Group heading.The DL will present results grouped by document type in alphabetical order: Books, Journals, Reports, Standards, Technical Papers.Press the descending arrow next to the Group heading.The DL will present results grouped by document type in reverse alphabetical order: Technical Papers, Standards, Reports, Journals, Books.The Information Group sort feature is handy because it allows you to easily see how many documents fall into each of the different document types for your search. You may want to focus particularly on Standards or Journal articles, and this feature gives you an easy way of pinpointing them, while still being able to view the list of all document types.

Saving Searches

Let’s say you want to conduct a fairly detailed search restricting your results to technical papers or standards published by SAE from 2000 to the present. You require that the documents contain the word “steel” in the title and the word “aluminum” in the abstract and have been indexed by the term “materials.” In Expert Search, click on Publication Date and enter “> 1999”.Click on Title and enter “steel”.Click on Information Group and enter “technical papers or standards”.Click on Abstract and enter “aluminum”.Click on Index Term and enter “materials”.Click on Publisher and enter “Society of Automotive Engineers.”Press the Search button.The DL will display all records matching your criteria.

To save your search, enter the name “materials” in the Save search as: box at the bottom of your hit list and press Save.

The DL will save your search criteria for future use in this session or future sessions.Use the drop-down menu at the top of your search results page to see a list of all of your saved searches.Click on the saved search named “materials.”The DL will automatically run your search again and provide a new hit list.The Save Search feature can save you significant time and effort and keep you up-to-date. If there is a special area of research that you are interested in and you want to keep abreast of any new information that is published in that area, the saved search feature is extremely useful. You only need to key in your search criteria one time. You can quickly run the search whenever you want. Enter the DL and click on “materials” from the Choose Saved Search drop-down menu on the home page. The DL will automatically run the search, so you can see if anything new relating to your search criteria has been added since the last time you searched.

Managing Saved Search Example:

You have the ability to rename or delete any one of your saved searches, or delete them all in one command.At the bottom of the search results page, click on the Manage Saved Searches link.Here you can rename your materials search by changing the name in the box and clicking on Rename.You can also delete your search by clicking Delete.The Manage Saved Search box also gives you the ability to delete all saved searches in one command.