Orbis tip

["Mark D. Szuchman" <szuchman@nospam.fiu.edu>]

NB colleagues,
In working on a project, I have discovered the sophisticated ways in
which features of Orbis make searching more fruitful. Specifically, the
use of the @ and # keywords, sometimes in combination with the Nexus
synomym apparatus, provides extraordinary control over the indexing and
retrieval efforts -- above and beyond Orbis' normal search-and-find
process.

The @ and # keywords option renders the ability to tag text with an
idea that is not literally contained in the passage.; i.e., it offers
the researcher the opportunity to conceptualize in one word the
contents of text. This is analogous to a book index's conceptual
entries. And even the need to keep the keyword to one word can be
easily managed, by, for example, joining two words into one:
"socialcontrol."

The Nexus synonym option is, I suspect, underutilized and yet I've
discovered that it offers exceptional opportunities for sophisticated
and time-saving searches. What's more, it can be used in conjunction
with the @ or # keywords for an even more economical search effort and
a more comprehensive yield. For example, I have, as the head word, the
term +order, followed by these synonyms: socialcontrol, police, arres*.
In this case, searching for +order AND social AND control will yield
all notes that:
1. deal with social control, but do not contain those two terms
2. contain social and control
3. contain police
4. contain arrest, arrests, arrested, and anything after arres.

That's pretty neat: after all, how often is one given the opportunity
to create and develop a personal thesaurus?

As the volume of one's notes or jottings expands, the potential for
losing access to the ideas and terms contained in them also grows. I've
been finding that the use of @ or # keywords and the +Nexus synomyms
has been useful in regaining access to texts that I've spent a good
deal of time and finger exercises to enter into computers.

I'd like to know if there are techniques out there in the NB community
that could make the research data entry and retrieval processes easier
or more fruitful. I would also like to know from people who use Orbis
to index their e-mail, how they do it; specifically, how do they get
rid of all the routing clutter, but minus the sender and date, that
precedes the message?
Best,
Mark