Equipped For The Future

Using the Search TCALL Feature on the TCALL Web site

The Web site of the Texas Center for Adult Literacy and Learning was completely redesigned this past summer. We hope it is easier to navigate and to find the resources and information you need. It's there for you to use, so please call or e-mail us your comments on our new site design.

One of the great features of our new site is the Search TCALL tool. If you have visited our home page, the Site Map, the Library page, and the Subject Area Road Maps but still don't find what you need, Search TCALL allows you to search our entire Web site for a word or a phrase, or to do more complex searches.

Here are some tips on different ways to use the new search feature:

• Look for words with the same prefix or set of letters. For example, in your query form, type motivat* to find motivation, motivating, motivator, and so on.
• Search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form, type teach** to find teach, teaching, teacher, and taught.
• Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the search engine to take them literally. For instance, if you type the following query: "adult learners" - the search engine will literally look for the complete phrase, adult learners. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks, the search engine will search for all pages with the words adult and learners, even if they are not adjacent to each other.
• Search with the keyword NEAR for words close to each other. For example, both of these queries, adult AND learner and adult NEAR learner - look for the words adult and learner on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.
• Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if you want to find all instances of ESL, but not citizenship, use the following query: ESL AND NOT citizenship
• Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word (or phrase) or another. For example: ESL OR "English as a second language" - this query finds all pages that mention ESL or "English as a second language" or both.

As you explore our Web site, please feel free to either call us on the hotline (800-441-READ) or e-mail us from our Web site with any questions or suggestions you may have.