Use the right search term

Finding materials by a certain person

Your work with the ATLA database will be greatly facilitated if you learn to use the very helpful Browse feature. The database was created with this function in mind, so using it will normally yield the best results.

The Browse feature is essential when searching for materials by or about a certain person. The same individual's name may appear in several different forms in an array of published sources. Sometimes middle names are used, or middle initials, or a different version of a given name (Stan versus Stanley, for instance). There may even be errors in the spelling of a name. Searching for each of these separately would be highly inefficient.

On the initial search screen, move the cursor to the Author/Editor field. Then, hit F2 to open the Browse window. You will see a very long, scrolling list of name entries. Begin to type an individual's name : for example, NIEBUHR. The list will scroll automatically as you type.

Use the Arrow keys to move up and down the list. You discover lots of Niebuhrs, and you find that the same individual has records filed under various forms of his or her name. The name of Ursula Niebuhr, for instance, appears in several different variations.

You do not need to make separate searches to retrieve all of these records. Instead, you can select the various forms of her name and retrieve all of the records at once.

To do this, move to the first entry for Ursula Niebuhr. Hold down the Control or Ctrl key and hit the Spacebar. A little check mark will appear beside the number of records (see image above). Continue to hold down Ctrl and hit Spacebar until you have marked all the forms of her name. Then, hit Enter.

All of the forms of her name will appear crowded into the Author/Editor field with the Boolean operator or between them. If you hit Enter again to activate the search, you will retrieve a complete set of 29 records. Hit F3 to display your results. You have retrieved all of the records in the ATLA database in which Ursula Niebuhr appears as author, editor, reviewer, or author of a reviewed work.

You will use a similar method to find all of the entries in the ATLA-RDB about a certain person (see next section).

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