The ease with which TWI Members can access the largest and most comprehensive welding database in the world is quite a surprise to many first time users. In fact using the database couldn't be simpler as TWI's tame guinea pig recently found when he offered himself to trial the service.
Access to the database is handled by the Information Services team. It's managed by TWI's Weldasearch mastermind, Sheila Thomas, and is based on a simple but clearly defined lexicon of key terms defined by the International Institute of Welding thesaurus.
So first, a typical sample enquiry
What is the most appropriate manual metal arc covered electrode for welding carbon steels in shipbuilding using the overhead position?
Sheila Thomas takes up the story step by step
- 'First we go to the corporate website front page and select Services from the top row, and on the next page Information Services from the vertical column. This brings us to the front page of the Information Services area.
- Click on Weldasearch. This introductory page gives you options to look at three short videos about how to use the system using 'easy search', 'advanced search' or 'set up a Weldasearch Alert'.
- To search the database click on 'search the Weldasearch database'.
- At this point we have to identify ourselves. The service is only available to Industrial and WJS Members and TWI staff. So log in using your TWI website ID and password.
- This takes you to the gateway page. Click on the 'Search Weldasearch' button and this brings you to the Weldasearch interface page.
- Identify the Search option which you require; easy, advanced or expert.
For this sort of search with several different criteria, the 'easy' search option would be inadequate. Our search is far more specific so we select the Advanced Search and we examine the key words available.
Weldasearch Advanced Search option allows you to search in specific parts of the database. We know we want a manual metal arc process, which is sufficiently common that it is likely to be a keyword, so from the first drop down box weselect the 'Keywords' option. If you're not sure about the acceptable terms, look at the orange word Index next to the drop down box. The index shows us what terms are allowable.
- After clicking on Index, we type MMA into the box labelled Index Stem, and hit the Enter key on the keyboard. You can see there that MMA alone doesn't appear, so it is not a valid keyword, but that MMA WELDING and MMA SURFACING arein the displayed list.
- We have confirmed that our keyword is 'MMA WELDING' and by clicking on it we can add it to the search box. But that shows us over 14,000 items. We need to narrow it down, so let's look at our other terms.
- We know we want covered electrodes, so we can do the same thing again using the second search box to ensure that it is an 'AND' search in the next instruction. We want to make sure that the article we identify talks about theelectrodes, it might just say that it involved MMA welding and not mention the consumables. The search has narrowed to 3643 references, which is still unmanageably large.
- We are interested in the overhead position, so we go to keywords again and choose 'overhead'. It narrows hugely when we include all three terms OVERHEAD POSITION and MMA WELDING and COVERED ELECTRODES.
- Now we're offered just nine references, which is easily manageable. Up to 20 references can be displayed at a time. Of course the success of the search is directly related to the specificity of the keywords. If for instance,instead of entering OVERHEAD POSITION the words 'CARBON STEELS' were entered the search would have identified considerably more than nine references, 134 to be precise, which many a searcher would consider an unmanageable number.
Similarly the keyword 'CARBON STEELS' limits the materials to steels with more than 0.25% carbon. If instead we use the less specific 'STRUCTURAL STEELS' we embrace mild steel, namely low carbon steels, and carbon manganese steels,which incidentally are very relevant to shipbuilding, the application specified in the original enquiry.
- We now go to 'View: Marked l Unmarked l All' from the menu towards the top of the screen and click on 'All' to see the details of the items retrieved.
Our standard form of presentation is to supply the abstract, the Weldasearch record number, title, authors, bibliographic reference, any notes about translations or where the paper was presented, the abstract, and availability fromTWI's library.
- Using the website the enquirer can then click on the little basket symbol to request a photocopy or an electronic copy from the library. There are complex copyright issues governing what we can and can't provide asphotocopies.'
One of the most useful aspects of Weldasearch is the Alerting Service which it offers. As Sheila Thomas explains, 'If you want to be kept up to date in a particular subject area, the alerting service is invaluable. You can access it from the Weldasearch front page, it is about half way down.'
'It allows you to set up a simple search which identifies your topic, and every month we update the database with typically about 450 items. Once you have entered your search and e-mail address all the items that are added about your topic will be e-mailed to you. It is a very useful service and it's easy to set up.'
We are very happy to advise on how to set up the search or any other aspects of Weldasearch.'
For more information contact sheila.thomas@twi.co.uk.
