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5.6. Other aspects of DIAL Index
The
index of links can be searched from a search window which appears at the bottom
of each page of DIAL Index. Searches result in a display of both all of the
index categories that include the search terms, and each specific link in the
index that uses the search terms. Searches are over both the DIAL Index and the
broader World Law Index.
Searches can be made using boolean connectors (`and', `or' and `not'),
proximity connectors (eg `w/5 for `within 5 words' or `near' for `within 50
words'). Search terms may be truncated with `*' (eg `bankrupt*').
It is important to realise the limitations of these searches. The only
information that can be searched from this window is (i) the titles of the
categories of the index ('Law Reform', 'Telecommunications' etc); and (ii) the
titles of every specific web site listed in the index, and the brief
description of it included in the index. It is just a search of titles in a
catalogue, nothing more. Searches of the index do not search the title of every
piece of legislation found on the web sites listed in the index, nor do they
search every word found in that legislation. This can only be done by DIAL
Search searches.
Despite these limitations, searches over the index can be valuable. They can
find incidental references in the index (including the broader World Law Index,
not just the DIAL Index) to subject matter for which there is not yet any
special Development Law Subject page. For example, a search for 'crim*' will
find a considerable range of criminal law or criminology resources.
See the Guided Tour `Searching the DIAL Index'[128]http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/dial/tour.html#Heading18]
for further details.
For example, a search over the index for entries relating to `environmen*' (for
`environment', `environmental' etc, includes the following in its list of
search results:
...
Two extracts from the results of a search of the index for
`environmen*'
Each of the underlined items is a link to an index category or
a resource elsewhere on the web.
As explained in the previous Chapter, the DIAL Index prototype has been
constructed as an integral part of a broader World Law Index, the front page of
which is shown below. Pages which are part of Project DIAL have a distinctive
appearance, being `badged' with the Bank's logo and having a different set of
`buttons' along the top of the page, so DIAL users know when they are in DIAL
resources and when they are in the broader World Law Index.
The front page of AustLII's `World' index - a `multi-threaded'
approach
For example, from the front page of World Law Index, a number of
resources are identified as being part of Project DIAL, one is the World Courts
Index Project, and the others are just parts of the general (`unbadged') World
Law Index. Other project-specific threads are to be added, such as an
`Indigenous Law' thread as part of the Reconciliation and Social Justice
Library that are being creating as part of its work with the Council for
Aboriginal Reconciliation.
The benefits of this are, first, that the DIAL Index resources are being
created within an existing and growing international index to legal materials,
where a lot of the hard work in identifying and indexing basic sources of
materials has been and is being done for other purposes, and, second, that
users of the DIAL Index also obtain the benefit of all the other types of legal
indexes (eg to case law or to specialised subject collections) that are being
created as part of this large cooperative indexing project.
The challenge is to enable DIAL index users to gain a clear sense of when they
are within the specific DIAL resources, and when they have moved out into the
broader index, and for there to be ease of navigation between one and the
other.
See the Guided Tour `Accessing other information about a country'[129]http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/dial/tour.html#Heading11]
for more information.
As an example of the inter-relationship between the DIAL Index and the World
Law Index, the example of Indonesia is typical. From the DIAL `Indonesia:
Legislation' page a user may go to the general `Indonesia' page (part of the
World Law Index) simply by selecting `Indonesia' from the top line of directory
information.
The `Indonesia: Legislation' page in DIAL Index
The `Indonesia' page has a variety of useful links including a
stored search of World Law Search (the `All Libraries' option for DIAL Search)
for `Indones*' which finds 165 items, including numerous indexes to Indonesian
law on the Internet.
Most country pages in the World Law Index have such a stored search for
variants of the name of that country, providing a convenient way to find
diverse legal information about any country.
The `Indonesia' page in World Law Index - http://www.austlii.edu.au/links/Indonesia/Legislation/
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