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| Search Based Upon | |
| A Word or Exact Phrase in the Title or Keywords | |
Can Include Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) |
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| Author's Last Name | |
| Year(s) of the Articles (Enter All Four Digits) | to |
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SEARCH TIPS General Guidelines: The database you are searching contains records for over 42,000 different articles, published over a period of seventy-five (75) years. The database also includes roughly a million words of text. Please be patient if the search engine takes a little time to make all the necessary comparisons. Search words are not case-sensitive. However, when Boolean operators are used, they must be entered in all-capital letters and can only be used within the Title/Keyword search box. Other than hyphenated words, do not include any punctuation or quotation marks within your search words or phrases. Your search may include criteria in either the Title/Keyword text box, the Author text box, the two boxes specifying Years for a date range, OR any combination of these boxes that you choose to use. The more specific you make your search criteria, the fewer extra "matches" will result from the search; however, there is also a greater risk of not finding your target if any of your search parameters does not exactly match the way it was entered into the database. To limit your search to any one specific year, the particular year of interest must be entered into both of the Year boxes. In some instances, the "Issue #" shown in the search report may show a letter after the number, i.e. a "5S" instead of just plain "5". These letters are indicating that, in addition to the regular issue magazine, a "supplemental" or additional magazine was published for the same month and year listed. The supplemental issue may be a separately bound membership directory, a multi-page insert with information on resolutions to be considered at the upcoming Annual Conference, or in one case it was an abridged version of the regular magazine that was prepared specifically for hand-outs at the Annual Conference. Also note any prefix or suffix data associated with listed page numbers. This data is directing you to different-numbered insert pages or other specialty pages (located elsewhere) than the typical standard-numbered magazine pages.
These searches look for actual words or phrases appearing in the title of the article, or other words identified by our researchers as "keywords" (other topics relevant to the body of the article). Any search criteria you enter in this box will automatically be checked for possible matches in both areas, the article titles and the "keyword" fields. When searching for a phrase, your search criteria must match up exactly with an identical text string in the article title - any variance of any kind and you will not find a match. Note that the "words" 9-1-1 and E9-1-1 are the current APCO-accepted standard spellings for these terms. In order to standardize the search process, regardless of the spellings actually used at the time of the article's printing, we have corrected the database entry to always reflect the above spellings. The only exceptions to this rule are for cases where the author's intent in the article was to emphasize the difference in spellings and to appeal for conformity. For those articles, even if the term "911" is used in the title, we have also added the appropriate "9-1-1" and/or "E9-1-1" to the Keywords portion of our database so your search will find the article.
We have tried very hard to avoid them, but with any database of this magnitude, there are bound to be some errors in the records. We continue to do proofreading and make corrections of the data; but some errors will always slip by. If you feel that a particular search does not return all the records you expected, please repeat your search using other variations of your search criteria. If you find an error in our data, or just have a suggestion, please send our Historian an E-Mail. Make your comments as detailed as possible and be sure to indicate the particular record's database file number. The unique file number is found in the upper left-hand corner of each record displayed on the search retrieval screen. We'll make all the necessary corrections and include them with our next release. Results from either a Title/Keyword search or an Author search will return all matches that include the same string of letters you entered in the search criteria. A search for "Smith" will also yield "Arrowsmith" and "Smithson". This also means that a search for "comm" will not only return the word "comm", but it will also give you "commit", "commitment", "communicate", "communications", and all the other possibilities. A search for the 9-1-1 related term of "ali" (as in Automatic Location Identification) will also return all records with the word "cALIfornia" in them. You can avoid this from occurring by using Boolean operators and entering your search criteria as "ali NOT california"; however, your report will then not include any ALI articles involving California locations. For this case, also re-run the search using the search criteria of "ali AND california". Search criteria you've entered in the Title/Keyword box will not also be used for making comparisons of Author name data within the database, and vice-versa.
The Boolean operators (AND, OR, and NOT) cannot be used within the Author search entry criteria field. When making author searches, we recommend you restrict your search criteria to only one last name. In many cases, the same author may be identified by his full name for one article, yet another article may only list the first initials and last name, and another may have both the first and last name with or without a middle initial. Do not include any titles (Ms., Mr., Officer, Sergeant, Chief, Ph.D., P.E., etc.) in your search criteria. Because the same individual may have many different titles during their career, and author citations for articles are not always consistent in listing appropriate titles, we've purposely not included titles in this database. You'll discover the Boolean "AND" operator to be invaluable in facilitating otherwise difficult searches. As an example, try looking for the names of former officers for the North Carolina Chapter. Compare the numbers and relevancy of "hits" you receive when you using each of these four different keyword search criteria: "North Carolina President" ; "North Carolina Officers" ; "North Carolina Officials" ; and "North Carolina AND Offic" (note the last word in the last example is intentionally left incomplete in order to get "hits" on both "Officers" and "Officials"). Also, note that the word "AND" spelled with all-capital letters functions uniquely different than if the word were spelled with any of those letters in lower-case. If any part of the word "AND" was spelled with lower-case letters, the search results would only reflect a search for instances of the entire (exact) phrase "North Carolina and Offic" being present, which is an unlikely phrase to ever be used. However, the Boolean "AND" operator, using all capital letters in the word, will return "hits" for every instance where both the phrase "North Carolina" and the partial word "Offic" appear anywhere (and in any sequence) within the Keywords ("Keywords" meaning each of the title words and all the other "article-related key words" entered into our database by the person indexing that particular article). You'll be amazed at how much more effective your search can be when you use the Boolean technique. The other Boolean operators available for use on this website are "OR" and "NOT" which you can learn more about by experimentation. Admitted, the "OR" and "NOT" operators won't be needed nearly as often as the "AND" operator, but they each provide a valuable tool for situations when you need them.
Minutes of Annual Conventions and Conferences:
APCO BULLETIN Magazines (Indicated years are all-inclusive):
This web site also includes on-line PDF images for over 60 complete issues of early APCO publications, including all the APCO BULLETINS for 1935, our first year. Click here. SAVE YOUR APCO BULLETINS. Your best sources for copies of articles you need are most easily found in the back issues you, your coworkers, or your local APCO Chapter have preserved. Contact us for help in starting your Chapter's own APCO Historical Collection. |
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© Copyright 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2010 Illinois Chapter, Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International, Inc. (Illinois APCO). All rights reserved. The APCO logo and all published material referenced on this website (including the searchable database and all subsidiary web pages) are protected by earlier copyrights owned by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International, Inc. (APCO) of Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. |
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