Searching the PAHO Web

The PAHO Web is now using Google as it's principal search engine. The search box displayed at the top of every page executes a Google search on the PAHO web by default. An Advanced Web Search using Google is also available.

The PAHO Web has at its core a database that contains an index of all material published to the site. When an item is registered with this database, it is identified both for storage and for retrieval. Material can still be retrieved using the system index and the quick search form described below.

1) The System Index

The PAHO Web's System Index consists of the different Public Health Topics, the Information Resource Types, and the Owners (Office, Area, and/or Unit) of the material registered and published to the site. From this information, the system generates most of the menu listings available throught the different areas of the PAHO Web. Each of these menus consists of a list of the terms, or categories, by which the material is indexed on the Web; each is essentially a map of the PAHO Web, providing several different paths to the material published on the site. These menus are lists of the categories that exist in the database, each category is a link, and you selects or click one of these links, the WCMS executes a search of the database and returns all items indexed under that specific category. This is essentially a narrow, guided search which yields very specific results. These menus are also generated for the Health Data and Countries and Regions index categories of the web system.

2) The Quick Search

The Quick Search executes a query on the following database indexes: Title, Author, Description, Keywords, and Topic of published materials. The query will return a listing of indexed material based on the language of the search (you can specify one, several, or all four languages), and/or specific variables such as date of publication and information resource type. The Quick Search accepts the Boolean variables OR and AND. This search allows you to broaden or narrow the focus of your query, and since the query is executed on the database it provides a more controlled and streamlined approach than a Full Text query.