Help
Basic Search
A search box appears on every page of the Safeyouth.org site. This is a basic search which looks across only the SafeYouth.org materials or organizations for any word, phrase, numerical sequence, or abbreviation that you enter. Type the word or words that describe what you're looking for, in any order, in the search box and click the Go button. A list of results will appear, sorted by relevancy (the likelihood that a result is what you're looking for); the most relevant results will appear first. Each entry on the results page will include a hyperlinked title, a description, and the web address.
Searching Within Sections
You can also search within the materials or organizations sections, using the radio buttons against the relevant label. You can perform an advanced search by following the Advanced Search Options link and choosing the section you want to search within. You can use the different advanced search fields in combination with each other.
Fields
You can use the following fields on the Advanced Search pages to further limit your search:
Search All Text
Results will include any record containing every word typed in this box, in any order. For example, typing gang violence school in this box will return records containing gang and violence and school anywhere in the record.
Additional Fields
You can also use the different fields of the Advanced Search in combination with each other. Type information into the Search All Text field, choose any Topic and choose any Audience; your results will be returned as if you had searched for that information in the chosen Topic and chosen Audience
Sort by
Select "Relevancy" to have the results most likely to meet your needs listed first. Select "Title" to have the results listed in alphabetical order.
Display # of results per page
You can change the number of entries on each page of results by choosing one of the options in this dropdown field. The maximum number of results entries to display per page is 100.
Tips for All Search Types (Basic, Advanced Section)
If you are unfamiliar with searching, these approaches may help you get relevant results.
- Wild Cards, Truncation, and Abbreviations
- Punctuation
- Stopwords
- Searching Phrases or Multiple Words
- Broadening Your Search (if you find too little)
- Narrowing Your Search (if you find too much)
Wild Cards, Truncation, and Abbreviations
Truncation is available in searches in this system by using * (a "wild card" character). Truncation enables you to search for more than one form of a word by entering its root and then placing an * at the end of it. If you do not include the * character, the system searches for exactly what you type.
To find results with:
- the root "dent" in them, including dentistry and dental, type dent* in the at least one of these field on the Advanced Search or Locate screens.
- the words abuse, abusive, abuser, abused, type abus* in the site-wide Basic Search box.
- pediatric and (clinic or clinical or clinics or clinician) and (California or Californian), type pediatric clinic* calif* in the all of these field on the Advanced Search or Locate screens.
- the abbreviation PA in it, type PA in the all of these field on the Advanced Search or Locate screens.
Punctuation
The system does not understand punctuation marks, including quotes, parentheses or colons. If you use any form of punctuation in your search and get an error message or get no results, try removing the punctuation and running your search again. For example, if you are searching titles of publications, leave out any punctuation marks that appear in the title.
Stopwords
A stopword is a word that the system ignores when running your search and retrieving documents. In other words, the system runs your search on only the most important words you type. If you use any stopwords in your search strategy, the system will ignore them, unless you are using them in the exact phrase search. The words a, an, and, or, not, next, with are some common examples of stopwords.
For example, searching for Youth Violence Report Surgeon General is the same thing as search for the longer title Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General.
Searching Phrases or Multiple Words
If you want to search for two or more words next to each other but in that specific order, you must use the exact phrase field of the Advanced Search or Locate screens.
If you want to search for two or more words in any order, you must use the all of these field of the Advanced Search or Locate screens.
Broadening Your Search (if you find too little)
If your search is not finding any results, or not finding as many as you would like, you need to broaden it. Here are a few options:
- Remove one of the terms from your search. If you are using too many terms,
you might be restricting the search too much.
- For example, instead of searching for school classroom student in the all of these field, try searching school classroom student in the at least one of these field.
- Look for misspellings in the terms you have entered. The system will only match exact, correct spellings.
- Change one of the terms to a broader term. For example, replace peer counseling with counseling.
- Change an acronym to the full name of an organization. For example:
- Replace OJJDP with Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
- Instead of searching on ADD search for attention deficit disorder.
Narrowing Your Search (if you find too much)
If you get too many results, you need to narrow your search. Here are a few options:
- Make your wording more specific. For example:
- Add another term to a general word. Instead of screening, use depression screening. Instead of treatment, use mental health treatment.
- Add a geographic qualification to a general phrase. Instead of community based organizations, use community based organizations Connecticut.
- Add another word into a field. For example:
- If you are searching for the word health, you are likely to find too many records. Limit the search by entering another word to the same field, such as mental health.