Helpsheet for the Gnomon Bibliographic Database

The Gnomon Bibliographic Database contains an index to works on Classical Philology, Ancient History, and Archaeology. It is a comprehensive electronic version of the quarterly index of publications in Classics from the journal Gnomon: Kritische Zeitschrift für die gesamte klassische Altertumswissenschaft. Version 7 of the CD database, installed Autumn 2001, contains an index of 263,977 references from 1840-March 2001. The collection comprises all reviews, personal notes (Personalnachrichten), and obituaries in the printed editions of Gnomon. One advantage of the Gnomon database over other electronic Classics resources is its indexing of over 8000 German dissertations and various holdings of the Eichstätt University Library.

Location: The Gnomon Bibliographic Database is located in the Classics Reading Room on the 4th floor of the Joseph Regenstein Library (RR4Cla) on the first computer (the Windows NT computer).

I. Starting Gnomon: Double-click the desktop icon "Gnomon-LIDOS" (the Athenian owl icon) to open the database. Select öffnen from the Dokumentation menu and open the file D:\Daten\Gnomonma.4ld. This will take you to the initial search/browse selection screen. The majority of the interface is in German. If your German database and computer terminology is somewhat rusty, you may find it convenient to use an online German-English dictionary (e.g. QuickDic). Note the number 263977 in parentheses towards the top. This is the current number of records in the Gnomon database and will increase with later editions.

II. Searching Gnomon:

A. Simple Search: Click the Personen/Titel button in the middle of the first row to view the simple search interface. Enter your search criteria in the appropriate field to search the database. Some fields (e.g. Person/KS) are indexed, so the search will finish quickly. Searching non indexed fields of the database will take approximately 30 seconds. The search options are:

• Person/KS (author, editor; search by Last Name, First Initial. -- e.g. rhodes, r. or Rhodes, R. Search for multiple authors must be advanced search)
• Jahr ... bis (year of publication; the range feature [bis for end date] does not work from this interface)
• Begriff aus dem Titel (terms from the title; separate terms with a space; terms need not be adjacent in title)
• Volltext ... in (searches for specified terms in any of the database fields selected from the list; simply click the fields to select for search; separate terms with a space; terms in same field need not be adjacent)
• und/oder (and/or - specifies the Boolean operator to use when searching for multiple terms with the Volltext option)

Note: Only one search option (e.g. Person/KS, Jahr, Volltext, etc.) can be searched through this simple search screen. If terms are entered in more than one option (e.g. Person/KS: Rhodes, R.; Jahr: 1995), only one option will be searched. Precedence is given to the options in the order as they are listed here. To execute your search, click the starten button; to cancel, click abbrechen. To return to the initial selection screen, select Zurück (Esc) from the Sichern menu or click on the first box in the menu bar. Search results are limited to 127 records.

B. Advanced Search: Be sure Volltext is selected in the first pop-up menu (beside Wie möchten Sie...) at the initial selection screen; then click the Recherchieren button. Three new windows appear: Recherche-Auftrag (where you see your search structure), Volltext-Recherche (where you build your search), and recherchierbare Felder (where you select which database fields to search). Fields in the right window with checkmarks will be searched. Use the checkmark buttons at the top to check or uncheck fields (or double-click on the field). For descriptions of many of the database fields, see the Gnomon Instruction Manual (p. 15) located at the designated Gnomon workstation.

1. Example: search for works on the Acropolis from 1990-2001.
2. Uncheck all fields (click the Auswahl komplett aufheben button - the crossed out checkmarks).
3. Double-click to mark all relevant fields (e.g. Titel, Textfeld, Abstract).
4. Enter your first search criterion in the Suchwort field in the Volltext-Recherche window (many records contain works in German and other languages; it is best to compensate for non English terms in your search -- e.g. "a?ropolis" with the wildcard "?" will return both "acropolis" and "akropolis"). You may disregard capitalization.
5. Click the und button to build on to your search.
6. Uncheck all fields and check the Jahr field.
7. The date range must be in parentheses to function properly. Click the "(" button and enter "199?" as the Suchwort; then click oder and enter "200?"; finally close the statement with the ")" button.
8. When finished, the search should look like this: a?ropolis in: Titel, Abstract, Textfeld und (199? in: Jahr oder 200? in: Jahr)
9. Click starten to begin the search.

C. Freitextsuche (Free Text Search): Click the Freitextsuche button on the initial selection screen. The Free Text Search tool is functionally identical to an advanced Volltext search with all fields checked (searches for terms in every database field). Insert spaces between search terms and select the desired Boolean operator (und/oder -- and/or) used to link those terms before clicking the starten button. The wildcards "?" and ".", explained below, may be used to broaden your search.

D. Wildcards & Truncation:
A question mark (?) may be used to substitute a single character. For example: "Thu?ydides" finds "Thucydides" and "Thukydides"
A period (.) may be used to substitute a string of characters. For example: "erechthe." finds "Erechtheum", "Erechtheus", "Erechtheion", etc.

III. Browsing Records by Index: Select an option from the final pop-up menu of the initial selection screen and click the Liste button to view an index of data in that category. The Thesaurus index contains keywords found in the database Deskriptoren field. Selecting Thesaurus kumuliert (Ctrl.+F8) from the Thesaurus menu displays the number of occurrences of each keyword in the database. Double-click a keyword to view those records. The language of the index can also be changed from the Thesaurus menu. Use the binoculars button to search the index and the binoculars-with-arrow button to jump to the next match. You can jump to any other index from the Liste menu. The Personen index contains modern and Classical authors (Classical names have been Latinized, e.g. Plinius for Pliny); the Erscheinungsjahr index contains the year of publication for all works; the Textfeld index is another list of keywords. Multiple thesaurus terms may also be used to build a complex search. Return to Gnomon's initial selection screen, select Thesaurus from the first pop-up menu, and click the Recherchieren button. Click the alph. Liste or syst. Liste buttons to view the thesaurus in alphabetical or hierarchical order.

IV. Working with Your Search Results: The title bar of the search results window displays the number of results returned and the record currently selected out of those results (e.g. "+1/81" beside "LIDOS 3" in the title bar). Use the forwards and backwards buttons to browse through the results. The default display is the full record. Terms matching your criteria will be highlighted in this view. Select the Dokumente in freier Liste zeigen button (third from last) to change the view to list format. Click it again to view a different list format, and again for a third list format. Return to detailed record view by clicking the Dokumente wie erfaßt zeigen button (fourth from last). Click the cba->abc button to sort the results by the predefined order for the current view.

V. Copying, Printing, and Saving Search Results:

A. Copying a record to another program: From the detailed record view, click and drag the mouse from the beginning of the first field (typically Verfasser; author) to the end of the last field (typically Dok-Nummer; record ID number) to highlight all the data; then select In Clipboard kopieren (Ctrl.+C) from the Bearbeiten menu. Switch to a word processor or text editor (e.g. select Start | Run... and type "wordpad" or "notepad") and paste the contents into a blank window (Ctrl.+V). Note that this copies only the data, not the field names.

B. Printing search results: From the search results screen (any view), select Ergebnis > Drucken (F8) or click the first printer button (printer with lined paper, not the number "1"). Click OK and drucken to print the data on the default printer. The default print format is Alphabetische Liste mit Nummerierung, which is the closest approximation to standard bibliographic format. See the Gnomon Instruction Manual for detailed descriptions of the various print formats (70; c.f. 74 in German version of manual) and print options (65).

C. Saving search results as a Plain Text (txt) or Rich Text Format (rtf) file: Follows the steps above for printing, but select the Optionen button before clicking drucken. Select the auf Datei radio button, then select the file format (RTF recommended for preserving style; readable by most word processors), and type a path and filename for the output (filename must be 8 or less character and you must supply the proper file extension, e.g.: c:\temp\bibliogr.rtf or a:\gnomon1.rtf). Click OK and drucken to export the data to the defined path. The default print format is Alphabetische Liste mit Nummerierung, which is the closest approximation of standard bibliographic format. See the Gnomon Instruction Manual for detailed descriptions of the various print formats (70; c.f. 74 in German version of manual) and print options (65).

VI. Exiting Gnomon: Return to the initial selection screen (Esc) and select Programm beenden (Alt.+F4) from the Dokumentation menu. Select OK when prompted by the program.

Appendix: Explanation of Database Fields
Dok-Nummer: Unique number assigned to each record in the database
Verfasser: Author (ancient and modern) or editor of a work (search modern names by "LastName, FirstInitial."; see II.A above)
Körperschaft: Institution as author of a work
Titel: Title of a work including possible subtitle
Ort: Place(s) of publication
Verlag: Publisher
Jahr: Year of publication
Textfeld: Text field; keywords taken from titles, sometimes in translation
Abstract:
Zeitschrift: Title of periodical
Sammelband: Collection of articles; anthology
Reihentitel: Series title, abbreviated according to Gnomon's Bibliographische Beilage (bibliographic supplement)
Band: Volume (in Roman or Arabic numerals)
Heft: Periodical issue number
Seiten: Pages; "first-last" and supplementary information (e.g. illustrations; tables)
Gnomon-Beilage: Gnomon Bibliographical Supplement identification number in format, e.g. 9704100 (1997, no. 04, p. 100; four digit years beginning with 2000)
Diss-Verzeichnis: Number assigned to dissertation in Bibliography of German Dissertations (Hochschulschriftenverzeichnis)

For more help use the Help Function available on the menu bar, refer to the manual located next to the workstation in the Classics Reading Room, or contact Catherine Mardikes, ETS Coordinator and Bibliographer for Classics and the Ancient Near East, JRL 471, 708-2783, c-mardikes@uchicago.edu.