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Organization of American States (OAS)

Containing publications of the Organization of American States, the world’s oldest regional organization, whose membership consists of 34 independent countries of the Americas and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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Main Search Bar Tips

  • The main search bar is stationary throughout HeinOnline
  • Once inside the Organization of American States database, the search bar will search only within this database, unless the Search All Databases box is ticked
  • Need something more robust? Click Advanced Search to perform a search using custom drop-downs
  • Need a refresher on how to construct a perfect search? Click Search Help for a quick reference guide to commonly used search syntax

The main search bar is stationary at the top of the page.

 

Using the Main Search Bar

  • For example, enter the phrase "human rights" inside quotation marks into the search bar
    • Select where you want to search for this phrase: as an Author, appearing in the Title of any document or article, as a Citation, or in our Catalog as a title. Want to see your search in any of these fields, or appearing in the full text of a document? Select Just search for

Start typing in the main search bar and options of where to search for your term(s) will autopopulate.

 

  • Use the facets on the left side of the page to narrow your results by Date, Document Type, Title, Series Title, Language, Person, or Organization
  • Terms matching the search query appear in bold text within the matching text page snippets
  • Sort search results by relevance, volume date, or title
  • Save to your MyHein account, email a result, display download options, or download a PDF using the icons on the right side of each search result.
  • Use the icons next to the sort-by bar to modify your current search, to search within results, to toggle all matching text pages, or to turn OFF infinite scroll

The search results page will show all results with matching text pages showing where in a result the search phrase appears, with options to download a pdf, email the result, or bookmark to MyHein on the right-hand of the results page. Search facets appear on the left-hand side of the page.

 

Using Advanced Search

  • Click Advanced Search to be taken to a page with custom facets to help maximize your research within this collection
  • Use the drop-downs to choose a variety of ways to search: Text, Title, Creator/Author, Description, Series, Classification*
    • *these two fields come from the OAS' Classification Manual for the OAS Official Records Series, the official classification system for documents published by the General Secretariat; see the dedicated section of this guide on Classification for more details
      • Series: examples include Multilateral Agreements, Conventions, and Treaties and Documents of the Permanent Council (Formerly the Council) of the OAS and Its Committees
      • Classification: examples include OEA/Ser.A or OEA/Ser.L
    • These fields are also reproduced on the search results page for any document that has them!
  • Select a subcollection to search within, Ctrl + click to select multiple subcollections, or search in all
  • Pick a title by citation to search within
  • Restrict results within a date range and change how results are sorted

Three search fields. Two are set to searching within the Text of documents for the terms "landmines" or "terrorism. The third search field is set to search for Series Title "permanent council"

 


A search result with the Series and Classification metadata highlighted

About Venn Diagram Search

 

  • Venn Diagram Search offers a visual representation of how search terms interact with each other
  • Helps users both refine their current search terms and become better researchers going forward
  • Find the link to Venn Diagram Search on the Advanced Search page
  • Searches are constructed by stringing together multiple terms separated by the Boolean operator "AND," with phrases grouped together in quotation marks

 

 

  • Results on the right side of the page pertain to the search as we originally constructed it (represented by the red slice in the center of the intersecting circles)
  • Select Clear for the ability to hover over the different segments of the diagram and see all possible search term combinations from our original query.
  • In our example, we can see results for:
    • poverty AND "climate change"
    • poverty AND economic*
    • economic* AND "climate change"
    • the terms poverty, "climate change" and economic* individually
  • Sort the results, save or export, turn to the specific page of a result, or start at the beginning of a given title

Three intersecting circles of various sizes representing the terms "poverty," "climate change," and "economic*""