Illinois Government Information (IGI) Help
- What is IGI?
- How to access IGI?
- What are IGI Main Screens
- Search Tips
- Using Access Keys
- How does IGI Work?
- Other Government Information Resources
What is IGI?
"Illinois Government Information (IGI)" search engine searches information on state level government agencies and services. It searches more than 200 current government agencies' websites.
IGI doesn't search local government information including city and county information, for details, refer to Limitations on search. For additional information resouces, refer to Other Government Information Resources.
IGI search engine interface is adapted from SWISH-E (Simple Web Indexing System for Humans Enhanced.)
How to access IGI?
IGI can be accessed through Find-It! Illinois in two ways:
Simple Search: by inputting keyword in the right corner box on the Find-It! Illinois website;
Guided Search: enter the guided search interface by clicking the link Illinois Government Information on the Find-It! Illinois website.
What are IGI Main Screens
Search page
Search can be performed under three different screens: "Search" screen, "Search by Subject" screen and "Search by Website" screen.
IGI uses advanced search as its main search screen. In the main search screen, IGI provides four ways to search for information. You can search whole text, and you can also search by subject heading, by originator, or by document identifier by checking either of the boxes under "Limit Search to" in the main search screen.
Query
To input search term(s), simply type them in the search box behind "Query" and click the "Search" button.
Search "All" or "Search within Result"
IGI by default searches all of the WebPages. After performing your initial search, if you do not find what you want within the first four or five pages of results, you can rephrase the search or define it by "Search[ing] within Result". Type additional words to further limit your query, check "Search within Result" box, then click "Search".
For example, if you begin by typing "education" in the search box and too many results return, you can check "Search within Results" and add the word "adult" to reduce the number of results appropriate to your interests.
Limit Your Search
The four ways of search are specified under "Limit Your Search":
Whole Text: the default search. By choosing this option, the search will be restricted to the "Keywords" and "Description" fields, and to approximately the first paragraph of the text of the document.
Subject Heading: By choosing this option, the search will be restricted to the subject "Classification" field, reflecting a topical grouping of documents. A document may be classified under more than one subject classification entry.
Originator: By choosing this option, the search will be restricted to fields comparable to searching by author or publisher. Specifically, only the fields "Agency Full Name", "Originator Jurisdiction", "Originator Office", "Originator Department", "Originator Division" and "Originator Section" fields are searched.
Document Identifier: By choosing this option, the search will be restricted to identification information about the document, and not other fields or the text of the document. Specifically, only the fields "Original Control Identifier" (e.g., report number) and "Document Title" are searched. The document identifier numbers are internal to government agencies.
The user also has the option to choose "Sort by" value, and use or ignore suffix of the search term:"Sort By" and "Reverse Sort"
"Best Match" is the systems' idea of the best match to your search. You can choose sort by "Report Number", "Title", "Author" and "Subject Heading" in the drop down menu. In combination with the above options, results can be displayed in reverse order. Simply check the "Reverse_Sort" box."Ignore Suffix" and "Use Suffix"
Exactly matching a word, including its suffix, is usually not important in answering a search request. This search engine will ignore mismatches involving the most common word suffixes (e.g., "ing", "ed", "ly"). For example, a search for "public" will retrieve "public", "publicly" as well as "publication".
To force the system to consider all the letters of a word when matching, choose the "Use suffix" button right below the sorting option.
The other two search screens are "Search by Subject" and "Search by Website".Search by Subject page
Under "Search by Subject" screen, searches can be done within only those documents classified under a specifically chosen subject classification. The user can also perform searches of only those documents published on a certain website.
Not all State of Illinois documents are classified yet. If you cannot find too many documents searching by subject, try search "Whole Text".
Search by Website page
Under "Search by Website" screen, you can search within an agency's website and retrieve all of the relevant WebPages in that website.
IGI also provides two types of browsing: "Browse by Subject" and "Browse by Website" under different screens. Browsing allows the user to navigate all of the WebPages under one subject or one agency's website.
Browse by Subject page
Choose "Browse by Subject" on the navigation bar, click the subject term, then click once in the search box below, and click the "Search!" button, IGI will generate all the results under this subject. The user can click down the topic tree and choose the appropriate subject heading.
Browse by Website page
Choose "Browse by Website" on the navigation bar, click the agency name, then click once in the search box below, and click the "Search!" button, IGI will generate all of the WebPages of this agency.
Alternatively, you can directly click the link that specifies the agency's homepage, and enter the website.
Government page
"Government" page arranges government agencies by hierarchy, and it provides searching within an agency's website as well as going directly to that agency's homepage.
Add IGI page
IGI search engine can be added to your own website. By copying and pasting the code on "Add IGI" page, you can add search function to your own website.
Help page
This "Help" page provides information on what IGI is, what the main screens are and IGI.
About
"About" page introduces the project team, core technoledges and standards compliance. For detailed information, refer to "About" page.
Search Tips
Word Search
To search for a single word, type that word into the search box. Capitalization is ignored in the search. Unless you specify otherwise, by clicking to change the selection in the "Limit Search to" box from WholeText to one of the other choices, the Whole Text option described above will be what is searched. Click on the "Search!" button, or press Enter to perform the search.
For example, if you are searching for university information, type "university" in the search box and the search will return all pages that include the word "university".
To search for multiple words, you can type the words in the search box. By default, IGI will return pages including all of the words to you.
For example, a search on "University Illinois" will return all pages including both "University" and "Illinois", and these two words are not necessarily together.
To further specify your search, you can use the Boolean operators "and", "or" or "not" in multiple words search. (See more under "Boolean operators".)
Phrase Search
To search for a phrase in a document, put double-quotes around your search terms.
For example: "child care" finds documents that have the exact phrase
"Child care", not "child support" and "health care".
Phrase searches are especially effective if you're searching for proper
names ("Carl Sandburg";) and phrases ("No Child Left Behind.")
Boolean Operators
Words or phrases can be combined in many ways to make a more complete or precise search request. The "Boolean operators" AND, OR or NOT can be used by themselves, and in combinations, while searching.
Capitalization is ignored for search terms and for the Boolean operators (and, or, not).
And (by Default)
Without Boolean operators, or double-quotes, a typed list of words is assumed to mean "list all documents containing all of these words". This is called a Boolean AND operation.
If you want your search to include all words you typed, simply type these words. To restrict your search further, include more search terms. The order in which the terms are typed will affect the search results.
For example, "University Illinois" returns any document containing the word "university" and the word "Illinois".
"Corn soybean wheat" returns only those pages that include all of the three words.
Or
"Or" is used to find pages that include either of the search terms. Add "or" between each of the terms.
For example, "university or college" returns any document containing either the word "university" or the word "college".
To restrict a search further and get fewer records, you can use "and" to include all of the words, or you can use "not" to exclude a word.
Not
If you want to exclude a word in your search, type "not" before the word.
For example:
"University Illinois not extension" returns any document containing the word "university" and the word "Illinois", and not containing the word "extension".
"University Illinois Chicago" not "license plate" returns any document containing the words "University", "Illinois", and "Chicago", AND NOT containing the phrase "license plate".
Use of Parenthesis
Parentheses are used to make your meaning clear to the search engine when you wish to do a complex search request. In most cases, when no parenthesis is being used, the search engine evaluates your typed words from left to right. To change that order of evaluation, parentheses can be used.
Examples:
history and (slavery or Negro or Black) -- finds all documents containing the word "history" AND also containing one or more of the three words "slavery" OR the word "Negro" OR the word "Black".
(soybean and disease) or "interveinal necrosis" -- finds all documents containing both the word "soybean" AND the word "disease", OR (that is, additionally) those documents containing the phrase "interveinal necrosis".
Subject Thesaurus
Classifying a document under a specific subject heading helps readers find related documents with much better accuracy and completeness than is supported by general searching for keywords.
The thesaurus IGI uses is the Jessica Tree expressed as the Illinois GILS Topic Tree: Hierarchical and Illinois GILS Topic Tree: Alphabetical. Agencies' WebPages are assigned subject headings by using terms from the thesaurus, and these WebPages can be searched from multiple accesses.
Search by Subject
To do a subject search, click "by Subject" on the left hand side of the navigation bar. A different search page will then come up, where the choices for subject classification to be searched are all listed, in alphabetical order. Select the subject heading you wanted by clicking the corresponding link. You can continue to select sub-headings under each heading, until your target is found. Right above the search box, a message will remind you which subject heading you are currently searching.
In the search results page, the searched subject heading will be displayed at the top of the page as a reminder, followed by the search box. The results of the search will be displayed below the search box.
Search within a Website
You can perform searches of only those documents published on a certain website by clicking "by Website" on the left hand side navigation bar. It will then direct you to a page where you can select a website to be searched.
Select the name of website you want by clicking the corresponding link. Right above the search box, a message will remind you which website you are currently searching.
In the results page, the website list will be displayed at the top of the page, followed by the search box. The results of the search will be displayed below the search box. Note that an agency may have more than one Website.
Search Separately
You can search the whole database, and you can also choose to search within a specific agency website. When performing a search within an agency website, notice that some directories are separated (spidered separately) from the parent agency website:
- "Illinois Onsite Safety and Health Consultation Program" website is separated from its parent agency website "Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity".
- "Illinois State Library", "Illinois State Archives", "Illinois Secretary of State Court of Claims Department" and "Illinois Securities Department" are separated from their parent agency website "CyberDrive Illinois".
- Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Web Resource excludes files in .pdf format.
- "Critical Trends Assessment Program (CTAP)" is separated from "Department of Natural Resources".
- "Illinois Digital Archives (IDA)" is separated from "ELI (Every Library in Illinois)".
- "Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)" excludes .jsp files under drinking-water-watch directory.
- "Every Library in Illinois (ELI)" is separated from "IliIda (Illinois Digital Archive)" as well.
- "The Governor's Office of Women's Affairs" and "The Illinois Government section" are separated from "Office of the Governor".
- "Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library" is separated from "Historic Preservation Agency".
- "Legislation and Laws section" is separated from "Illinois General Assembly".
- "IPC Development Database" is separated from "Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission".
- "Illinois General Assembly" is separated from "Legislative Information System".
- "The Governor's Office of Women's Affairs", "The Illinois Homeland Security","Illinois Federal Clearinghouse" Governor page,"Illinois Geographic Information Council", "The Illinois Technology Office (ITO)", "Illinois Workforce Advantage (IWA)", "Volunteerism and Community Service" are separated from multi-agency shared server website.
Truncation
To retrieve all the word variations, Wildcarding (i.e., "*") is available; however it can only be used at the end of a word.
Examples:
Comput* -- This will retrieve documents containing the words computer, computing, computation, computable, computer-fest, etc.
Limitations on Search and Search Accuracy
This search engine examines both the text of web documents and author-provided descriptive "metadata" about the document.
Not all State of Illinois documents are completely described with metadata at this time. If the source document is missing some descriptive metadata, it may not be possible to correctly match that document with a search request.
Also, if a source document does not conform to published web standards (i.e., HTML), it may not be possible for the search engine to process it, resulting in the inability to later match that document with a search request.
This search engine examines only the websites of the state government of Illinois, but not the state universities. A roster of the supported websites is listed when searching "by Website" is selected. Other governmental bodies within Illinois (e.g., the city of Urbana, or Edgar County), and other companies, organizations, and individuals located within Illinois also operate websites, but those are not supported by this search engine.
Using Access Keys
The navigation bar on the left lists the specifications for the access keys of this web site. These access keys are active on every page of this web site. The capitalized and underlined letter indicates which keyboard key performs a certain function (e.g., "A" brings up the "About" web page).
Access keys are used here to provide keyboard-only access to the most important pages of this website. Keyboard-only access is often faster, for experienced users, and can be essential for users with some types of disabilities, or for use on computer systems that lack a mouse or other pointing device. Combined with a text-to-speech reader, access keys make operation of this web site possible without a display device (computer monitor).
Activating an access key is done differently in different web browsers:
FireFox (version 2.0 and subsequent) users type "SHIFT+ALT+[Access Key]".
Internet Explorer (version 4.0 and subsequent) users first type "ALT+[Access Key]", then type "Enter".
Netscape (version 6.2 and subsequent) users type "ALT+[Access Key]".
Opera (version 7.02 and subsequent) users type "SHIFT+ESC+[Accesskey]".
How does IGI Work?
IGI searches what was acquired by the latest spidering. Spider is a robot that goes out to the different state government sites. The robot seeks out and copies the Web pages and the GILS metadata that has been embedded in the HTML code of state online government documents.
Then IGI generates a GILS metadata page ("Blue Page", which includes "Title", "Description", "Category", "URL", "first paragraph", and other information, for each spidered state agencies' Web page, and indexes these blue pages.
Upon request of a search from a user, IGI will search the indexes and return relevant results.
The complete Blue Pages can be viewed by clicking "More Info" from the retrieved results.
What is the metadata standard IGI uses?
GILS metadata standard: modified WAGILS (Washington State's Government Information Locator Service). IGI uses metadata elements specifically tailored to Illinois government documents.
Other Government Information Resources
City, County and Township
Local government including city government and county government websites are not included, so if you search for counties and cities information, you can refer to State and Local Government on the Net.
Other Find-It Illinois Resources
IGI is only part of Find-It! Illinois. Currently, Find-It! Illinois including the following components:
Illinois Library Holdings
- ILLINET Online (IO) is the OPAC (Online Public Access Catalog) for ILCSO member libraries, and it provides interlibrary loan and resource sharing services to the entire Illinois library community.
- "Illinois Digital Archives (IDA)" searches Illinois?online multi-media files, including images and sound files. Libraries can also add images and files into the database.
- The Statewide Illinois Library Catalog (SILC) provides access and interlibrary loan service to the collections of all Illinois libraries and subgroups of Illinois libraries through the WorldCat database.
- Talking Book and Braille Service (TBBS) searches the 65.000 audio and Braille files through Illinois State Library TBBS online catalog. Illinois residents who are participants in the Library of Congress, National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped program can order books online.
Find Articles
- Illinois Periodicals Online (IPO) provides access currently to nine journals: Illinois Country Living, Illinois Heritage, Illinois History: A Magazine for Young People, Illinois History Teacher, Illinois Issues, Illinois Libraries, Illinois Municipal Review, Illinois Parks, Recreation, and Outdoor Illinois.
- Illinois Library Directory Every Library in Illinois, ELI, provides access to directory and statistical information concerning Illinois libraries collected by the State Library.
Illinois Authors
Illinois Authors Includes information on authors directory, book fair and activities, collection, Illinois authors on the state library building and Illinois authors reading room.
Online Learning
- Continuous Learning Opportunities (CLeO) offers online registration for continuing education and meeting opportunities on various library related topics.
- ElearningIllinois is an initiative of the Illinois On-line Leadership Council connecting resources related to on-line education in Illinois.
- LibraryU offers free online classes for libraries and patrons created by Illinois librarians.
Geospatial Information
- The Chicago Region Clearinghouse Cooperative is a new multi-organizational spatial data Clearinghouse for the greater Chicago Region (including participants from Northwest Indiana).
- The Illinois Natural Resources Geospatial Data Clearinghouse is a gateway to Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data and imagery for Illinois.
- The Geospatial Data Clearinghouse is a collection of over 250 spatial data servers, which have digital geographic data primarily for use in GIS, image processing systems, and other modeling software.
E-RICH
The Illinois State Library's E-RICH, electronic resource cost-sharing service, offerings for FY2005 (July 1, 2004-June 30, 2005) have been expanded to include products recommended by Illinois librarians through Try-It! Illinois, the Illinois State Library's statewide electronic resource trial, offered annually from October 1 through November 30.