Search Tips: MCH Organizations
General Search Tips
To conduct and searches (e.g., to retrieve records that contain pregnancy and prenatal in a particular field), enter both terms in the search
field.
To conduct or searches (e.g., to retrieve records that contain
either pregnancy or prenatal, but not necessarily both,
in a particular field), it is necessary to search twice, once for each
term.
Choose the most unusual words, if possible (not health!).
If you are searching for a term that has varied endings, the term may
be truncated by typing in the beginning of the word followed by an asterisk.
For example, for materials on adolescents, typing adolescen* will
retrieve records using both adolescents and adolescence.
To match an exact phrase, enclose it in quotation marks. For example,"special
health needs" matches children with special health needs and
the special health needs of pregnant women with disabilities but
not children with special health care needs or special needs
of newborns.
The database search engine is not case sensitive. For example, searches
for WIC and wic yield the same records.
The order of the words is unimportant. Searching for public health yields public health programs and health services for the public,
but not public private partnerships (because there is no health).
You may also search using these special characters:
- @ matches one arbitrary character (e.g., wom@n matches woman and women)
- * matches zero or more arbitrary characters (e.g.,*feeding matches feeding disorders and breastfeeding)
- = forces the words to be an exact match (e.g.,=nutrition matches nutrition and nutrition assessment, but not nutritionists or nutritional requirements)
If a search finds too many records, redo it with additional terms. For example, add a population type (e.g., adolescents) or another subject term in the keyword field. Or, you can narrow your search by adding a state abbreviation to the state field to find organizations in a particular state (see tips for searching specific fields, below).
Simple
Search
Use the simple search field to conduct a comprehensive
search on a particular topic. Fill in words or phrases. The organization
name, keyword, and annotation fields will be searched. Records retrieved
will contain all of the search terms, which may be located in any of these
fields. For a more focused search, enter your word or phrase in the keyword
field, which indicates the main mission of the organization.
Advanced Search
Please note: Specific
fields may be searched individually or in combination.
Organization Name
This field contains the full name of the organization. For faster
searches, don't enter the entire organization name in this search field.
Limit the number of words to two or three of the most unusual words in
the name, if possible. For example, to find the Association of Women's
Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, enter the terms obstetric neonatal in the organization name field.
Acronym
This field contains the acronym of an organization without periods
between letters. For example, to find the American Academy of Pediatrics,
enter AAP in the acronym field.
Keywords
This field indicates the main mission of the organization. Use this
field to conduct a more focused search for particular types of organizations.
Fill in one or more terms. The keyword field in records retrieved will
contain all the search terms entered. For a more comprehensive search
for particular types of organizations, use the simple search field, which
will search the organization name, keyword, and annotation fields. The MCH
Thesaurus lists keywords that are used to index library databases.
Executive Director
This field contains the first and last name of the executive
director plus degrees, if applicable. It may also contain the individual's
specific
title if the title is not Executive Director. For more efficient
searches, enter the last name in the field. Please note: Not all records
in the database include the name of the executive director.
City
This field contains the city of the main address of the organization
(e.g., Arlington).
State
This field contains the state of the main address of the organization.
The U.S. Postal Service's two-letter state abbreviations are used (e.g. VA).