Sch. of Information Management & Systems. Infosys 101: Information Systems. Spr 1997. Buckland.

Exercise 10: MELVYL's other databases. Due April 10.

The purpose of this exercise is two-fold: (1) Learn about the EXPLAIN facility; (2) Assure minimal familiarity with MELVYL databases other than the CATALOG. This exercise is designed for use at campus library terminals or by telnetting into MELVYL.   (MELVYL, not GLADIS!).

The MELVYL has extensive provision for "explaining" itself -- Using the EXPLAIN command followed by whatever needs to be explained.
Enter MELVYL. Try EXPLAIN EXPLAIN
There is a Glossary listing words that are "explained" and with numerous brief definitions.
Try EXPLAIN GLOSSARY    Scan the screens.
Try EXPLAIN [term] for a term of your choice.   What term?
Is the explanation adequate?
There are several databases in the MELVYL system in addition to the CATALOG and [last] TEN YEARS' catalog -- and also provision for using MELVYL to access databases elsewhere.
Try EXPLAIN DATABASES - or E DB for short.
Enter START    Enter ALPHA
Enter MAGS    (If you get lost do SET DB MAGS)
Enter HELP MAGS or EXPLAIN MAGS. Both give the same result.
Note that FIND KEYWORD searches for in both titles and subject headings for the word(s) specified, essentially the sum of   F   TW   and   F   SU
Do F KW BUCKLAND INFORMATION
Do DISPLAY LONG or D LONG   What did you find?   What grade?


MELVYL's databases increasingly include the text or an abstract (summary) of the text as well as bibliographic record. For an example, switch to the COMPuter literature database:
SET DB COMP   then   EXP COMP
Try   F KW UNIVERSITY EMAIL PRIVACY then D    The first record specifies "text" and the second "abstract", so do D 1 LONG TEXT and D 2 LONG ABSTRACT or, instead, use one command for both D LONG TEXT ABS What do find?



Do START, pick some other database inside the MELVYL system (but not CAT, TEN, MAGS, or COMP) using SET DB [whatever] and do a search of interest to yourself.
What database did you choose?


What did you search for?



Print out or make a brief note of a record you found.



[OPTIONAL] Try some recreational searching.   (Revised 4/1/97)