Proximity+Searching+F


 * PROXIMITY SEARCH **

What is Proximity Search?

Proximity search is limiting the distance between keywords that you are searching for (Walhello), through the use of Boolean words (Wikipedia). Web pages usually make a website a searched result if it just contains the keywords (Wikipedia). In this case, the results may not be too relevant to what you are actually looking for, since the keywords could be scattered all over the page. This is when proximity search comes in. By limiting the distance between the words, the search could become more relevant. The keywords would be more near each other, giving you the results with information about both in the same sentence. It would be easier to use sites with the keywords near each other, since the relationship between the two are clearer (Wikipedia). You can use proximity search for the opposite as well. You could use this technique to give room between words, instead of forcing the keywords to be stuck to each other. If you want to search for key words that could be seperated by a few words, you could use the proximity search to make the keywords near each other but not too far away (Pandia). This would give a variety of results while maintaining relevancy.

Example 1: Let say that you want to search about “**how to be successful in IB**”. You might probably want to know about some tips to be successful and not all the websites say “tips for IB”. To make your research more proximate, limiting words is needed. We can use words like **NEAR, NOT NEAR, FOLLOWED BY, NOT FOLLOWED BY, SENTENCE, PARAGRAPH OR FAR** to limit between specific keywords that you’re looking for. Also, we can write a approximate number of words between two key terms to have more broad information (Wikipedia). A proximity search of “how to be successful in IB” would be ‘tip NEAR IB’. The result will bring up the documents or websites specifically about successful tips of IB. The result will bring up the documents or websites specifically about successful tips of IB. The sentence and paragraph operators are also used if you want to search about paragraphs that talk about your search question. For example, if you want to find pages that include **WW2 and propaganda** in the same paragraph, you can type ‘WW2 PARAGRAPH propaganda’. Example 2: We apply this concept to search through databases for objects that are 'near' or 'far' from other objects of interests. Just as the distance between words in a documents is an approximation of how related the searched terms are. Hence, proximity search is very useful for focusing a search. So for example if you are searching for someone with the last name "Cole" but you are unaware if this person is an employee, a manager or a costumer. A search result will most likely yield numerous people not relevant to you throughout the database. If we know the target search term (in this case "Cole") is not related to something such as a complaint record, then we can narrow down the original searched term using the following words **NEAR, NOT NEAR, FOLLOWED BY, NOT FOLLOWED BY, SENTENCE, PARAGRAPH OR FAR (**also listed in the first paragraph), in between the two information that we as users know. So using the following keyword 'far' would be appropriate to use in this search; 'Cole FAR complaint record'. This will narrow down the original searched subject, ranking it by how closely it is not related to each person to a complaint record.


 * JSTOR:**

JSTOR offers two types of options for proximity searching. They both depend on the need of the person and how much knowledge he has about the topic when he starts searching about it. Proximity search can be performed in JSTOR on the normal search bar.Or on the advanced search bar which can be accessed by clicking the advanced search under the normal search bar. The search bar has many options for a more detailed search and also some options for proximity search. In the picture below it shows the Advanced Search option. The advanced search can help you narrow down the search and you can use some easy options when doing a proximity search. As you can see in the picture below in the option where you choose the option of and, or, not in the advanced bar, in their place you can use the proximity search options which are the option called “Near 5, 10, or 25” and in the first blank bar you should put the first world and in the second bar you should put the other word. But using the advanced bar is very limiting because you will be only able to use 5, 10, or 25 as an option. The easier option is to use the normal search bar which allows a range of variation and you are not limited by the option of 5, 10, or 25. For example in the picture below there is an example of a proximity search in JSTOR. In the example the two words are debt and forgiveness and the proximity is 4 which is not an option in the advanced search. So what you should do is that your word should be between “…” quotient marks and there should be a space in between the two words after the words are between the quotient marks the outside you should use this symbol ~ and after that place the number you want the word from.

** 1. ****__ How to use the technique in EBSCO? __** - The proximity operators are composed of a letter (**N** or **W**) and a **number** (to specify the number of words). The proximity operator is placed between the words that are to be searched, as follows:  · ** Near Operator ** (**Nx**): **Nx** finds the words if they are within //x words// of one another regardless of the order in which they appear. For example, type **red N5 house** to find results that would match //red house a//s well as //house that is red.//  · ** Within Operator ** (**Wx**): **Wx** finds the words if they are within //x words// of one another and //in the order in which you entered them//. + For example, type **tax W8 reform** to find results that would match //tax reform// but would **not** match //reform of income tax//.

// Note // : These operators will not work when parentheses are used to separate search terms. For example: **(red or blue) N5 house** will not find results. You must use **(red N5 house)** or **(blue N5 house)**.

 · If the //Literature Resource Center// database is being used, the researcher should click Search Hints and scan down to Search Operators (Proximity Searching).

** 2. ****__ How to use the technique in World Book Online? __** World Book Online doesn’t support “Proximity Search”.

** 3. ** **__ How to use the technique in United Streaming? __** <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">- Go to advanced search. - Change the “//Find results matching//” option to “//Match Boolean Query//”.

<span style="color: black; display: block; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">- Then type your key words on the search box but add the proximity search operators like: <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 54pt; text-align: justify;">+ **NEAR**: unordered proximity search. + **ONEAR**: ordered proximity search.


 * Efficiency:**

Proximity search is especially effective and efficient at finding information in which contains or is expected to contain certain phrase within a sentence or paragraph. It is also effective when certain phrase or word within the key word should be far away from or not near from the other. Such method can be proficient especially when one needs a reference from certain article where they only remember certain phrase or key words and the distance between them (Near limits the distance to 10 words in between, not near to 20, far over 20). "Advanced Search." Disvovery Education. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://help.discoveryeducation.com/support/index.cfm?event=showAsset&guidTaxId=95fc695f%2D1b78%2Dcd48%2Df8ca%2De929a9f52c82&guidAssetId=e36dff09%2D1b78%2Dcd48%2Df8be%2D1675f5a9dbea>.
 * Works Cited List:**

Evangel University Library Staff. Information Sources: Proximity Searching and Google Searching Hints. Oct. 2009. PDF. <http://www.evangel.edu/Library/Subject/ProximitySearching.pdf>. Pandia. "On Proximity Search, the NEAR Operator." Search Engine Marketing and Internet Searching. 16 Sept. 2010. <http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/6.html>.

Walhello. "Introducing the Walhello Search Engine." Internet Search Engine. 17 Sept. 2010. []. <span style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; marginbottom: 10pt; marginleft: 0cm; marginright: 0cm; margintop: 0cm;">Wikipedia. "Proximity Search (text)." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 22 Feb. 2010. 17 Sept. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_search_(text)>.