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Subject: How to find information in Parkinson Archives by E-mail 8/3/95 This is a periodic posting on Finding Information In Parkinson Archives By E-mail. CHANGES: URL for Parkinsn "junkies" who can't wait for their digest or mail to arrive in due course. gopher://vm.utcc.utoronto.ca:70/00/listserv/parkinsn/parkinsn.digest --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Posting: August 3, 1995 Discard any earlier postings and print this one for reference. For assistance E-mail [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] Queries discussed in this article should be addressed to: [log in to unmask] <<< AND NOT TO >>> [log in to unmask] Start of Finding information in Parkinson Archives by E-mail. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Almost any thing discussed in Parkinson's can be found using the listserv. Every message posted to the list is archived in Notebooks which are simple to search by E-mail. Currently the listserv handles over 150 searches of the archive per week and delivers posts to over 110,000 subscribers to the various lists that are served by the University of Toronto. A majority of the searches are done by Parkinsn list members using these tools you are about to learn about. These tools have been used to provide background for the various stories that introduced many of you to the Parkinsn List. Our almost 900 subscribers reside in 25 countries. All that it takes to find anything ever discussed in the PARKINSN (notice the spelling) database uses the following method. Send mail to: [log in to unmask] In the Subject: put anything or nothing at all(this isn't read by the machine) Enter the following information: //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * select blue glasses in parkinsn index Don't put anything else in the message even your signature. SPACING is CRITICAL between the words. The word JOB (see above) requires 3 spaces before and after. The line that begins with //Rules DD requires a space before the * (asterisk). Explanation: The word SELECT(caps just for emphasis) is a command that the listserv understands to tell it to look for the following words just before IN(caps again just for emphasis). In this test message, the words, blue glasses are what we want the machine to look for. The words, IN PARKINSN tell the listserv where to look for blue glasses, which is in the parkinsn database. The parkinsn database includes all the notebooks which hold the Parkinson messages. Don't confuse the word Parkinson with the database name which is parkinsn. The word INDEX(caps again just for emphasis) is a command that tells the listserv to send you a list of messages that contain the words you specified. You will receive a message back from a listserv which will tell you the number of hits that resulted from your search. Below this, a list of messages will be given. The number in the first column is important. Each message will have a unique number. The Recs column shows how many lines are in the message. If you send the example of blue glasses you will receive the following message. > select blue glasses in parkinsn --> Database PARKINSN, 26 hits. > index Item # Date Time Recs Subject ------ ---- ---- ---- ------- 000595 94/06/19 10:21 50 Dyskinesia Test 001380 94/12/14 17:33 74 Asthma and PD ----------------snip----------------------------- 001760 95/02/03 10:04 60 seeing 001802 95/02/08 09:06 12 Re: light and blue glasses 001809 95/02/08 19:48 27 Re: light and blue glasses 001812 95/02/08 21:10 25 Re: light and blue glasses 001821 95/02/09 15:25 10 BLUE GLASSES 001846 95/02/13 09:35 11 Re: BLUE GLASSES 001850 95/02/13 14:30 129 Finding Information In Parkinson Archives By E-mail Each one of these messages will contain the word blue glasses in either the subject or the body. The Recs column is how many lines each message contains. How do I get these messages? Enter the following information: //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * select blue glasses in parkinsn print all (THIS IS WHERE YOU ENTER THOSE UNIQUE NUMBERS, SEPARATED WITH A SPACE, THAT WERE IN THE FIRST COLUMN) Example: print all 1821 1846 >From experience, some of the posts can be quite long and the listserv will restrict the number of lines it will send per request. You can safely retrieve up to about 700 lines of messages with a single batch command and have it all arrive in a single message without truncating. From a practical standpoint, if you save the Job Language batch command to a text file, it is easy to edit the message numbers in the print all line without having to retype the whole schmaltz each time. Can I ask more than one question in the first message requesting a parkinsn database search? Yes. Example: //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * select blue glasses in parkinsn index select left foot dragging in parkinsn index In this example, another search would be made for left foot dragging and an index would be returned. Receive those messages the same way with the print all and then the unique message number. Remember, if you request a number of messages that contain more than about 700 lines, you may not receive all of them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advanced Uses of Search Multiple qualifiers can be used with the Select command to filter the list of messages. For example, perhaps you remembered seeing a message that gave the name of a neurosurgeon who performed pallidotomies in Dallas. At that time it didn't interest you but since then you have changed your mind. To use multiple qualifiers use the example below in the body of a message sent to: [log in to unmask] //DBlook JOB Echo=No Database Search DD=Rules //Rules DD * select (pallidotom and Dallas) in parkinsn index You will notice that I didn't put an end on pallidotom since I don't know if the word pallidotomy or pallidotomies was used in the message. I capitalized Dallas since I am looking for the proper name. Just plain dallas would work also but not capitalized DALLAS. Multiple qualifiers are always enclosed with parenthesis. Send the message. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Advanced Usage of the SELECT command Once you have mastered the techniques of searching the archives, you can use the same tools to search other listserv archives on the internet that maintain publicly accessible NOTEBOOKs. How do I find them? You can find locations of listservs in the List of Lists. You can find out what other databases that are available at UTORONTO.CA by sending a message to: [log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: Database list Within a few minutes (hours) the listserv will send you a list of databases it maintains. How do I find out if a particular database has a publicly accessible archive. Send a message to: [log in to unmask] or whatever listserv@ that you are interested in. In the body of the message put for example. rev parkinsn At the top of the message you will see the part about: notebook= yes,m,weekly,public review= public send= public subscription= open The word "public" means that you can use the tools to search the archives, send messages to the list and it can send you back the results of your searches. Some lists and archives maintained by the listserv aren't open to the public and are just reserved for certain people or certain E-mail address origins. Naturally, as I have said many times before, the address to send mail to the list is different than the address to interact with the listserv. What happens if one of my messages accidentally gets sent to the listserv instead of to the list? The listserv tries 10 times to find a word used in your message that resembles some command that it understands. Not finding that, it UNSERVES your address. In other words any further message sent to either to PARKINSN or the listserv from your E-mail address are ignored and no action is taken. The only way to redeem you <g>, is for someone else from another E-mail address to send a message to the listserv with the words in the body of: serve John Doe This will turn you back on provided your name is John Doe. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Finding Current Posters Addresses The posters of the original messages you receive from the archives may not be around anymore or may have different E-Mail addresses. To find current addresses of posters send mail to: [log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: rev parkinsn by name Send the message. You will receive current names and E-Mail addresses of all unconcealed members with last names in alphabetical order. Finding Addresses by country: To find unconcealed subscribers names, sorted by country and alphabetized by last name, send mail to: [log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: rev parkinsn by country Send the message. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why are these tools better than using Gopher or the listserv Get command? The analogy of using these tools vs. the Get command or Gopher is the file cabinet. The weekly notebooks that you see and browse with Gopher are just that, file cabinets full of messages. Your choice with Gopher is browse or download the file cabinet for later searching. Chances are, the one you download won't have what you are looking for. The listserv assigns each message a unique number, the recs number that you use with the tools we have described. Using the search tools, you can have the listserv search all the file cabinets for exactly what you want in a few minutes without wasting on-line time. You get answers to specific questions, fast. What about using the GET command to retrieve notebooks? With that command you are ordering the file cabinet, again like gopher. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If anyone finds one piece of information that they desperately needed, compiling this message was worth it. "God help us if we don't help one another" John Cottingham "KNOWLEDGE is of two kinds: we know [log in to unmask] a subject, or we know where we can OR find information upon it." [log in to unmask] Dr. Samuel Johnson