There are two entry modes to access the contents of Geo-Guide database. A Local Search engine enables users to enter search or scan terms (e.g. keywords, creator names, resource titles, etc.) and launch a search. The Browsing mode provides an overview of resources by Browse by Subject or offers a perspective by formal criteria (e.g. to search for databases, research institutes, journals, etc.) in the Source Type Catalogs Organisations & Institutions and Virtual Libraries & Sources Materials.

Depending on your preferred entry mode, the system will respond with different screens. In any case, it will present a list of results. After selecting an entry from the Index Scan, the results will be presented in form of a simple title list. In any other case the results will be presented by the so-called Mini-Templates with information on title, description (optional), identifier and data source (optional).

The responses to your query are displayed in a list by alphabetical order or sorted by timestamp. On the basis of this list users can select the resources that seem to be most promising or interesting. There are two options for further selection:

There is more detailed information on each of the resources indexed in the Geo-Guide (specifying additional metadata elements such as creator, publisher, access information, rights etc.). This information is available in the so-called full Metadata Template and is accessed via the “more…” link in the lower right of each hit display. This full template is meant to provide more comprehensive information on a resource without actually loading it; its Metadata Concept are based on the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. Additional, it provides cross-search opportunities with keywords and classifications.

If there is no need for a closer look at more detailed metadata, any resource is directly accessible by following the hyperlink in the identifier (URL) field of the Mini-Template.

If you want to save the results, any resource description can be insert in a filing tray for further adaption in My Geo-Guide.

No matter whether from the Mini-Template or from the full Template, any resource can directly be accessed by activating the hyperlink in the identifier field.

The Geo-Guide is equipped with a local search engine (based on our Avanti server) that searches the database, a quick and an advanced search function as well as an index scan are available. Generally all searches can be truncated with a question mark (?) at the end. This will find any word starting with the stem before the "?".

The “Quick Search” allows a search for the entered term in all fields containing text, e.g. title, author, description, classification. It does not search in non-verbal fields like URL. This search is case-insensitve, if you enter several words, they will concatenated with the Boolean operator “and”.

Combines several search options with Boolean operators. In Advanced Search, the following categories are available:

Text searches for the entered term in all fields containing text, e.g. author, description, classification. It does not search in non-verbal fields like URL, date, evaluation. This search is case-insensitive, and if you enter several words, they will be concatenated with "AND".

Title performs a case-insensitive search in the Title field, several words will be concatenated with "AND".

URL separates the entered address: the server addresses at every "." and the paths at every "/". These parts are joined with "AND" and are searched in the URL field So you can enter only parts or pieces of the address. This search is case-sensitive. If you enter e.g. "emis" you will find all data sets refering to sites on the EMIS (European Mathematical Information Service) Server with the URL http://www.emis.de/.

Keywords performs a case-sensitive search in the Keyword field, several words will be regarded as one expression, e.g. "geologic hazard" will find all entries with this keyword, while "geologic?" will find additional entries. The GeoRef Thesaurus> of the American Geological Institute (7. ed., 1994, ISBN: 0-922152-25-X) forms the basis of our keyword indexing, so American English language is preferred. Most keywords are also searchable in the Multilingual Thesaurus of Geosciences (2. ed., 1995, ISBN:1-57387-009-9) in the list for American English. The Multilingual Thesaurus is developed by a joint working group of the International Union of Geological Sciences'> (IUGS) and the International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI). Some keywords are not listed in the GeoRef Thesaurus, so in these cases the Subject Headings of the Library of Congress Classification are used. The Keyword List list all in this category available terms.

In addition, this category contains abbreviations of subject-specific societies, surveys, publishers, etc., as well as some interdisciplinary terms like LOC, and acronyms used in the earth sciences like GPS or TEM. The Acronyms and Abbreviations List lists all in this category available terms, which are searchable in the categories "Text", "Title", or "Author/Publisher", too.

Codes: Codes are case sensitive and have to be entered according to special tables.

In our database we use the ISO 639-1 code (from Unicode, Inc.) to map the language(s) of the WWW documents . Two-letter lower-case characters are used., e.g. en for English, de for German, fr for French.

In our database we use the ISO 3166 code to map the country of the described thematic server. Two-letter alphabetic codes are used. See also the code list of the Council of European National Top level domain Registries (CENTR). (E.g. GB for Great Britain, DE for Germany, US for the United States of America.)

Codes of two classification systems are searchable. The GOK used as subject code is given by a combination of figures and characters. The DDC is a decimal code. For a precise entry, see the concordance list.

Two to 7 lowercase letters as described in the Source Type Catalog.

Dates: Dates are given as 8 figures representing the year, month and day (yyyymmdd). If you use e.g. the truncation 199909?, you can find all dates from September 1999.

This is the last time that the source was updated when it was described.

This is the last time the source was revisited by the Geo-Guide team.

The display can be sorted according to: ·

• Title (ascending alphabetically)
• Date (descending by last review of source, i.e. newest are top)
• Backlinks (descending)
• Subject Classification (by the respective code)
• Source Type (by the respective code)
• Country (by the respective code)
• Language (by the respective code)
• Source Date (descending by last update of source, i.e. newest are top)
• Evaluation (descending by sum total of evaluation stars, i.e. highest are top)

Combines the search in adjusted fields of main subject classes and source types. So it offers a perspective by formal criteria for the main subjects.

The “Index Scan” helps to make a search for specific terms.

The system initial is set on the category Keywords, which allows to scan in the index of this category containing all keywords used in the Geo-Guide. In addition, this index category contains abbreviations of subject-specific societies, surveys, publishers, etc., as well as some interdisciplinary terms like LOC, and acronyms used in the earth sciences like GPS or TEM. The Keyword List and the Acronyms and Abbreviations List list once more all these in this category available terms, which are searchable through Geo-Guide advanced search in the categories "keywords", "any" (for fulltext), "description", "title", or "publisher", too.

Other categories of “Index Scan” are title, title words, URL, URL phrases as well as text, which contains indexed terms from descriptions.

The "Browse by Subject Area" provides access to all subject areas for which records in the Geo-Guide exists. By this way you will have access to records of a selected subject area. The basic structure is the arrangement of all entries along a subject-specific classification. All sources are indexed by English language descriptors from subject specific thesauri as well as by subject classification. In the Geo-Guide database the Göttinger Online Classification (GOK) is used.

A list ( Concordance List ) provides a concordance between verbal expression of the classification system and other classifications like the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) and the Uniform Decimal Classification, both international accepted and widely-used universal librarian classifications, as well as the Basis Classification (BK) of the Joint Library Catalog of several German Libraries (GBV – Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund).

It is recommended that users take some time to familiarize themselves with the structure and contents of the Concordance List This will beneficial for better retrieval results (also in the Advanced Search).

The homepages of selected organizations and institutions, usually earth sciences departments, research institutes or scholarly organizations are subsumed within this category of arranged records by type of resources. A complete list of all document types used in Geo-Guide is available in the Source Type Catalog.

The websites you can find via this entry are categorized according to formal categories. There exists a lot of different forms of websites providing rather different informations for users. We distinguish here some main categories:

Sites providing access to factual references (like statistical data or information in a more or less lexical or encylopedical manner).

Sites providing access to further access points (like bibliographical information, i.e. lists of literature or bibliographical databases, as well as qualified link lists pointing to further internet resources). Sites providing directly access to source materials, publications, images, maps etc. A complete list of all document types used in Geo-Guide is available in the Source Type Catalog

Earth Sciences related Job Sites offering Job Opportunities.

This mode provides some personal services:

(1)	“Searchhistory” gives an overview of all searches of a session and allows storing the most favorite searches - the searches you most frequently run on Geo-Guide – and even have new results emailed to you..
(2)	“Save set” provides to save selected results and even have emailed to you.
(3)	“Login” provides a registration and personal profile setting for the favorite searches service.