ARCHIVAL SEARCH INSTRUCTIONS

This is a clarification of how to do SEARCH functions on Lactnet..it is
very useful to have this information at your finger tips, and to try it
out. Many times, a topic has been discussed, and you can benefit from
finding past posts on the topic you are interested in. Lactnet now has
many years of archives  and  we are now up to  over 3000 + subscribers
). To look for the most current posts, use the listname LACTNET in your
search command.

For info's sake, there are a few different ways to do a search for
subject matter or sender on Lactnet material. We have  7  years of
Lactnet posts available to you. The first way is to do the searches by
email through the [log in to unmask] address. The second way
is accessing the archives from our archive web site at LACTNET Archives
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html. The following
instructions apply to the first method, searching via the listserv.

For instance, if you are interested in finding all the notes that have
Goat's Milk in the text you can send an email message to
[log in to unmask] that says

SEARCH goat in LACTNET

If you are interested in finding several different words in Lactnet
posts, such as the following, it might seem that the right way to do it
is to do several *different* searches, in separate notes to listserv,
like....

search epilepsy in lactnet

search tegretol in lactnet

search carbamazepine in lactnet

search phenobarbital in lactnet

to the [log in to unmask] address. However, this is not an
effective way to utilize the search function, as it taxes the system,
and is ineffective.

We  want to encourage you all to use the search functions, and here are
a few hints....and suggestions on how best to do SEARCHes on Lactnet.

You can put several commands into a single message, and should do so
when you can (because it's easier for both you and the machine). Just
put each command onto its own line. Second, it will be much easier for
you to make sense of the output if you put everything you want from
LACTNET into a single command:

SEARCH EPILEPSY OR TEGRETOL OR CARBAMAZEPINE OR PHENOBARBITAL OR PROZAC
IN LACTNET

... like that. Or you can do things like this, too:

SEARCH EPILEPSY AND (TEGRETOL OR CARBAMAZEPINE OR PHENOBARBITAL) IN
LACTNET

Rather than having to combine the lists of results that LISTSERV gives
you to from those individual searches, let it do the work for you.

If you were interested in searching for all the posts that I have made,
for instance, on Lactnet, you could do a

SEARCH * in Lactnet where sender contains Bruce

to the [log in to unmask] address.

If you wanted to see all the posts I've made since Jan 1997, for
instance, you could do a

SEARCH * in Lactnet where sender contains Bruce SINCE Jan 1997

to [log in to unmask]

If you are searching for several words that are together, such as

Breastmilk storage container

and you want to know what has been said since March 1995, on Lactnet,
you should first know that the Listserv automatically assumes "NEAR"
between all the words, so they not only have to be in the same article
but also within a few words of each other. In addition, unless you
*have* to search the entire set of archives, you should always limit the
search with a date specifier like this: For instance, say the subject of
the search is breastmilk storage containers.....The search command would
be :

search breastmilk storage containers in LACTNET

It is important to specify the search. Many articles talking about
breast milk would separate the two words, and that some articles talking
about containers might only say "container", etc. Specifying a search
that gets all or most of what you want with a minimum of what you don't
is as much of an art as a science.

For information on searching, write to [log in to unmask]
with the command

INFO DATABASE.

When you use the SEARCH function, the computer will send you back a
"menu" of posts, each having a 4 digit number (####). You can then order
the posts you want with the command

GETPOST Lactnet #### #### #### ####

to [log in to unmask]

Last but not least, the search function is also available at the WEB
SITE LACTNET Archives http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html



If you have questions, please write to us at
[log in to unmask]

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