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Which AERADE service should I use and how do I use it?

Tips for searching AERADE effectively

Why can’t I find any information on the topic I’m interested in?

Which AERADE service should I use and how do I use it?

AERADE consists of seven separate services. More information about the coverage of each of them is available from the About AERADE page. However, as a rough guide:

Use the aerospace and defence resources database or the Reports Archive for general information relating to any aspect of aerospace or defence
Use the ESDU series database for engineering design data
Use the DEVISE database if you are interested in any aspect of defence or the military
Use the Reports Archive to find historically significant, digitised technical reports
Use the Shrivenham Index to find abstracts of articles from journals that are held by the Library at the Shrivenham campus of Cranfield University. Access to the full text online is provided where possible, or alternatively via links to document suppliers.
Use ConferenceBrief to find forthcoming conferences and events
Use NewsBrief to find the latest industry news
JobsBrief to find jobs for which you might want to apply

Important note:

Aerospace and defence resources, DEVISE and ESDU are all cross-searchable from the AERADE home page. However, you can also go to these services individually using the navigation menu on the left hand side of the screen if you wish to carry out a more specific search, or if you want to browse the resources they contain by subject heading.

The Reports Archive, Shrivenham Index, ConferenceBrief, JobsBrief and NewsBrief are not cross-searchable. If you wish to use any of these four services, you will need to access them individually using the navigation menu on the left hand side of the screen and either search or browse them separately.

Tips for searching AERADE effectively

The following "How do I?" guide is designed to help you search AERADE as effectively as possible and the tips are applicable to searching the databases from both the home page and from within the individual services.

How do I....

...specify a phrase?: If you put two or more words into the search box, the database will automatically look for records that contain those terms, but not necessarily as a phrase. In order to specify that the software should search for a phrase, surround your terms by quotation marks.; Example: "Federal Aviation Regulations"
...specify that all my terms should appear in the records?: If you put AND between your search terms, you are stating that you want both words to appear in each record retrieved.; Example: simulation AND training
...specify that either of my terms should appear in the records?: If you put OR between two terms, you are stating that you want either word to appear in each record retrieved, but not necessarily both within the same record.; Example: reconnaissance OR surveillance
...exclude terms from the search?: If you put NOT between two terms, you are stating that you want the first word to appear in each record without the second.; Example: tank NOT fuel
...create highly specific searches?: For highly specific searches, brackets can be used to make your usage of AND and OR clearer.; Example: training AND (CRM OR "crew resource management")
...search for a variety of similar terms quickly?: Instead of typing in many similar terms when searching, you can use the stemming option in the Full search options. Just type in the 'stem' of the terms, and click on the Stemming button before searching.; Example: robot (will find robot, robots, robotics); You can also use the Substring option to help you find similar terms that have the same sequence of letters in the main body. (N.B. This can also be useful if you are not entirely sure about the spelling of a term).; Example: dynamics (will find dynamics and aerodynamics)
...specify that only titles or descriptions should be searched, rather than both?: The software automatically searches resource titles and descriptions when you input your search term. However, within the Full search options, you can select the fields you which to search, choosing only titles or only descriptions.
...only show the titles in the results?: Within the Full search options, select ‘Titles only’ within the formatting section. Once you have your results, clicking on the title will take you directly to the resource.

Why can’t I find any information on the topic I’m interested in?

General problems

When you search AERADE, you are not searching the full text of the resources it contains. You are searching the titles of the resources and descriptions of them that have been written by information specialists. It could be that the terms you are using are not the ones the cataloguers used. Try to think of alternative ways of describing your search, and broaden it if necessary.

Searching problems

The AERADE search facility cannot cope with certain symbols within the search such as apostrophes (' '), ampersands (&) and hyphens (-). If such symbols are used in your search, you are likely to get a message stating that there are no matches for those terms, when in fact there might be. In order to negate this problem, refrain from using these symbols and simply input plain keywords. In the case of apostrophes, use the stem of the keyword - e.g. search for Jane when you want to find Jane's resources.

Finding too many results?

Try using the Full search options to only search the titles of the resources AERADE contains. This may enable you to identify the resources of most relevance to your search query.

Finding too few results?

If you cannot find anything of particular relevance to you within a specific database, or your subject area is very general, use the search box on the home page to search all the databases simultaneously.

AERADE does not intend to produce definitive listings for any of the areas it covers, particularly for companies and academic institutions, as outlined in our Statement of Quality. Therefore, there will be cases in which the service does not contain sufficient resources to meet your needs. Please contact AERADE – aerade@cranfield.ac.uk – if you are having trouble finding resource, and we will try to help you find them.

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