| Assembly Proceedings Search Help Display Documents/Download Documents 1. To display a particular day's Hansard transcript without doing any searching 2. To display the documents resulting from a search a.
e. "Within a few paragraphs of..." f.
3. Searching for divisions (recorded votes) 5. Searching PDF documents (Hansard, committee transcripts, and indexes)
The home screen for the Hansard databases is the Display Documents tab, where Hansard documents from the current session may be viewed. To perform a search in any of the Hansard databases, click on either the Simple Search or Advanced Search tab. 1. To display a particular day’s Hansard transcript without doing any searching (from the Display Documents screen): Display
Hansard for this date (Current session only) :
2. To display the documents resulting from a search:
Afternoon and evening transcripts for the same day are loaded into the database as separate documents with the same date but are differentiated from each other by either 1:30 p.m. or 8:00 p.m.
2a. Navigation symbols within the document The top bar has the following options:
At the first occurrence of the search term, the following navigation symbols enable you to move around within and between documents:
Downloading. Starting in 2003 (25th Legislature, 3rd Session), all documents are in PDF format. If you are viewing a document from 2003, click on Download at the top of the screen. The PDF version of the document will display starting at the first occurrence of the term used in the search. To download either the entire document, or a portion, follow the instructions in 1. above. [do link to 1] From 1991 to the end of 2002 documents in Hansard databases are in WordPerfect format, so if you are viewing a document from those years the steps to download or copy them are slightly different. Please note that downloading these documents into other word processors or converting them to other formats may result in changes in document layout. Also, please note that page numbers in such downloaded text will not necessarily correspond to the official printed version. • To download the entire document, click on Download at the top of the document. Click on Save on the File Download pop-up box and follow the prompts. • To copy a portion of the text, the entire document must be downloaded, as above. Next locate the portion of the document containing the term used in the search (press F2, type the search term, then click on Find next). Highlight the text to be copied and press ctrl+ c (or Edit-Copy). Exit that document and open the document in which the copy should be placed. Press ctrl + v (or Edit-Paste) to paste the text into that document. Note: A portion of the text can also be copied directly from screen without downloading it, but all the HTML coding will copy also, including the coding that creates the arrows on screen. To do this, highlight the text to be copied and press ctrl+ c (or Edit-Copy). Exit that document and open the document in which the copy should be placed. Press ctrl + v (or Edit-Paste) to paste the text into that document. Delete the coding.
Type
keyword or phrase to search for; it can be all lowercase; for example,
.kananaskiscomputer*crop insurancetraffic safety
2. Nonsearchable Words (Simple and Advanced Searches)
The following are the options available to allow keywords or phrases to be combined together into more complicated searches. They should be used if a Simple Search does not produce useful results. As a search query is built up, the search terms entered in the top box will be transferred to the ‘Query so far is’ box whenever a combining option is selected. This makes it easy to keep track of the search string being built.
a.
The symbol This search option can be used between two or more keywords or phrases to find any document that contains all of the search terms that are entered
For example:
This will find documents that contain both traffic safety and Mr. Stelmach.
However, since Hansard documents can be quite long, the two search terms
may be several pages apart and therefore not related to one another. An
alternative would be to use the " "AND" is probably best used in the Hansard databases in combination with a date, such as "What did they say about traffic safety on June 15?" For such a search:
b.
The symbol This search option can be used between two or more keywords or phrases to find either one or the other, or all of the search terms anywhere in the same document. It is useful when the same topic is referred to using a variety of different terms, such as AEUB / Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, or export highway / north-south highway / free trade highway.
For example:
c. The symbol This search option can be used between two or more keywords or phrases to find documents containing the first search term but not if the second search term also occurs in the same document. This is a way of doing a fairly broad search but eliminating topics that are definitely not wanted.
For example:
This will find references to housing, but not if the same document contains references to low-income housing. Keep in mind that Hansard documents average about 20 pages, so this type of search may possibly eliminate a document you may want. d.
The symbol This search option can be used between two or more keywords or phrases to find each search term, regardless of what order they occur in, either in the same paragraph or within one paragraph before or after one another. This type of search is more specific than using AND as it finds terms that are much closer to one another, and therefore more likely to be related. A paragraph is a period followed by a blank line, so in the Hansard databases a paragraph can be as short as one line of text. If a search using this operator does not get results, try the "Within a few paragraphs of" search option. Click here to learn how to use the search option "Within a few paragraphs of..."
For example:
This will find issues where Mr. Stelmach will more likely be speaking about traffic safety than those found if AND had been used to combine the two terms. e. "Within a FEW paragraphs of" If searching terms "Within a PARAGRAPH of" does not get results and too many documents are retrieved using other types of searches, try searching the terms within a few paragraphs of one another.
The two back slashes (\\) replace the "in the same Paragraph as" option, and the "x" between them specifies by how many paragraphs you want to broaden the search. Any number can be used. Leave a blank space between the search terms and the slashes. For example:
This will find the term traffic safety within four paragraphs either side of Mr. Stelmach. f.
The symbol This can be used between two or more keywords to find each search term, regardless of what order they occur in, within the same paragraph as one another. This type of search is even more specific than the one above and is particularly useful to search for phrases when the word order of the phrase is uncertain. For example, the phrase "environmental impact assessment" might also be phrased as "assessment of the environmental impact" or "assess the impact on the environment."
For example:
The asterisks (*) will find all variations of those words, for example assess/assessment, and searching for all the variations in the same paragraph will find the phrase environmental impact assessment regardless of what sequence the words actually occur in, in the document. g.
The symbol This search option can be used between two keywords or phrases to find documents in which the first term is followed by the second term somewhere in the same document. It is a very broad type of search but could be useful if it is not known how far apart the terms may be from one another. Use this operator if "Within a FEW paragraphs of" does not retrieve the desired documents. In the Hansard database, it could also be used in conjunction with the "head" field (see Other Searches for more details).
For example:
This would find where a Bill with the words ‘real estate’ in its title went through third reading. h.
The symbol This produces a search that is even more specific than "In the SAME paragraph as..." and is done exactly the same way.
For example:
This can be done as either a Simple or Advanced Search. If you want to search for references in the text to a particular date that may have been mentioned (eg. the September 5th Accord), or if you want to search for a particular sitting date (especially in previous years):
For example:
This will find document(s) actually dated September 5, but it will also find other documents where that date was mentioned somewhere in the text. There is also a date field inserted at the top of each document, which can be used to search for a range of dates
For example:
This will find all documents actually dated November 24 to November 30, 2002. It is very useful if you want to search for a topic that may have come up during that time. The date range can be combined with keywords representing the topic, using any of the Advanced Search options. It can also be used to restrict subsequent searches to just that range of documents (see Query Within Query search). 2. Using the HEAD field to search Standing Orders of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta sets out the headings under which the business of the House is conducted. These headings are used in the transcripts of Alberta Hansard when transcribing the daily proceedings. The headings in the text have been designated as a field separate from the rest of the text by inserting the word “head:” at the beginning of lines containing those headings. A search using the heading field is very specific as the search is restricted to just that field, ignoring the rest of the text. Searches using headings can be done by using the Simple Search screen in most cases. When the Advanced Search screen is required, this is indicated after the relevant heading below. Any time a heading is used in combination with other keywords, however, always use the Advanced Search screen. When using a heading as a search term, the entire heading does not necessarily need to be typed, just type enough to distinguish it from any other heading. Some headings are often referred to by an informal term, but the formal term must be used when searching, since the informal headings do not appear in the heading field in the text. The following is an alphabetical list of the headings, both informal and official, along with the search terms needed to do a search. Sample searches are located at the end of this list.
Sample Searches a) Simple Search To find all Throne Speeches from the past 10 years:
There should be one document per year; click on the dates you wish to see. Should there be more than one document for a given year, it probably means there was an election during that year. The earlier date will be from the session preceding the election; the later date will be from the session following the election. b) Advanced Search
The "Followed anywhere by" option was used in this case, as there are usually several members making such statements on the day reserved for this order of business, and it won’t be known if the member you are looking for was first or last to make a statement. The search may also produce documents that aren’t relevant, as the member may be speaking under a completely different heading further on in the proceedings. Just view all the retrieved documents to find the one you want. 3. Searching for Divisions (Recorded votes) At times the vote on an issue in the Legislature is recorded, meaning that the name of each member is recorded in the Assembly’s records (and printed in Hansard) as being either "For the motion" or "Against the motion." There is no heading in the text for divisions, but it is always preceded in the text by the editorial phrase "The division bell was rung at ..." So to find out how a particular member voted,
do an Advanced Search for the phrase "division bell," select
4. Query Within Query (Restricting a subsequent search to the previous search’s results) It is possible to narrow down a search by doing an initial search and then restricting all subsequent searches to the documents resulting from the first one. This has the effect of eliminating a lot of irrelevant documents and can make searching more precise. The search terms for the second and any subsequent search are entered in the box labeled "Search within results" at the end of the Search Results screen. Any of the Advanced Search options may be used but must be typed out as part of the search string (You won’t be able to click on any of them.) The abbreviations for the options are as follows:
For example, to find where a member spoke on a private member’s motion about terrorism, the initial search would be for documents containing the heading "Motions Other than Government Motions" (or private members’ motions) as this item of business only comes up once a week. Subsequent searches would only search documents from that particular day, thus eliminating documents from other sitting days, making the search more precise.
The member’s name is Cenaiko. The search is for this name within a paragraph of words beginning with terror (such as terrorist, terrorists, terrorism). If "Within a paragraph of" does not yield results, try a broader search ‘within 3 paragraphs of.’
5.)Searching PDF documents (Hansard, committee transcripts, and indexes) Some documents on the Assembly website are only available as PDF documents and some are available as either PDF or HTML documents. Follow these instructions to use the search capabilities of Adobe Reader to find where a word is mentioned in a PDF document:
On the website are indexes providing subject access to Hansard transcripts and all standing and special committee meeting transcripts. The indexes are an alternative to keyword searching for finding topics in the transcripts, and provide the page numbers in the transcripts where the remarks about those topics can be read. In order to get from the index to the transcripts, you will need to look up the page number in the Page Number Directory found at the beginning of each index. The directory enables you to find the date of the transcript containing a given page number. To find a subject heading in the index:
To find out if there have been any points of privilege raised during a session, an index search would be more efficient than a keyword search. The index has one heading for this, whereas a keyword search would find the word ‘privilege’ regardless of the context in which it is used (for example: “Mr. Speaker: It is a privilege to rise ...”) so will retrieve many more documents than you need.
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