Quick Guides – Getting Started

This brief guide is for people who are new to the Parlianet site, and provides an introduction to basic search techniques. The Parlianet service employs Search Wizards, which are designed to guide you through constructing your searches using step-by-step prompts and drop-down menus.

Parlianet is a subscription service so you will need to have a user ID and password before you can perform any searches. If you have forgotten your password, please contact our Help Desk on 020 7284 8100 (+44 20 7284 8100 for international customers) or email helpdesk@justis.com. If you do not have a subscription to Parlianet and would like to take out a trial of the database, please email sales@justis.com.

Your first search

For the purpose of this guide we will use the PQ (Parliamentary Questions) wizard to look for recent parliamentary questions relating to schools and religion.

1. Once you have logged on, click the Search Wizards link. You can find this in the main body text of the Parlianet Service page or by using the link in the left-hand navigation. This link is available on all pages of the service.
   
   
2. All that is visible is the Legislature field. Click the black, downwards arrow and then click the name of a legislature. You can choose a specific legislature, such as the Welsh Assembly or search across all legislatures. In this example, select United Kingdom.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Selecting United Kingdom gives you a list of the search wizards available to you – the list that you see depends on the legislature that you have selected. Select Parliamentary Questions from the Wizard list.
   
   
4. You are now presented with all of the data fields that are relevant to PQs.
   
   
   
   
   You can fill in as many or as few of the fields as you wish. Each field contains a range of buttons on the right to help you construct your search.
   
   Use the Add button to add search terms – simply click the button to view the choices available.
   
   Use the Remove button to deselect any choices that you’ve made and wish to remove.
   
   Use the Help button for more help on any particular field.
   
   Use the Reset button to set a field back to the original default option.
   
   
5. Going back to our search, we will leave the Session set at the default "This Session". (If you click the + button you will see that Parlianet’s archive allows you to search sessions as far back as 1979 for Westminster). We will leave the Date field blank though, of course, you can use it to look for a specific date or a range of dates.
   
   
6. In the Type field click the + button. You will see that you can choose from Oral Questions, Written Questions, Private Notice Questions and Lords Questions, or all of the types listed. Select Oral Questions from the drop-down menu and then select Written Questions. Both should now appear in the Type field. In this search we will ignore the next three fields – Member, Responding Minister and Corporate Author – though they could be used to further refine our search if required.
   
   
7. Scroll down to the Subject Terms field and enter "schools and religion" in the text box. You must include the word and so that your search finds all documents which refer to both schools and religion. (You can also use other Boolean operators (not and or) in constructing your searches. For more information on Boolean operators please see the Help Files).
   
   
8. Our search terms are now complete – scroll to the bottom or top of the form and click "Go".

Viewing your results

This search has produced twenty-eight documents. (Please note that this figure was correct on 22nd February 2002. It is likely that the figure will be higher as the current session (2001/2002) progresses, or lower at the beginning of the next session).

You are now presented with a variety of options for displaying your results.

Click List documents in Date order to view your results and you will see that the documents are arranged by date, starting with the most recent. To view any document click the blue underlined link. (Please note that the check boxes to the left of each document can be clicked to denote that you wish to print, download or email specific items).

You may prefer to choose another way of displaying your results other than just date order – in our search you can do this either by Member then Date order, or by Type then Date order.

You’ll see that the document you’ve chosen contains details of the question (and its answer, where relevant) and that all of your search terms are highlighted in red. Towards the end of many documents you’ll also notice the following: Web Location Click here for full text. This provides a link to the full text of the question in Hansard.

You can move from one document to the next using the Previous Document and Next Document links at the bottom and top of the screen (to return to your search results list at any point, click List in the green navigation bar at the top of your screen). Clicking Display in the green navigation bar gives you a choice of five display types. Click Document List to return to your results (the other four display types are covered in the Results and Analysis Quick Guide).

You may wish to print, download or email selected documents or lists of results. Click the Print, Download or Email buttons on the Document Screen to use any of these features.

If you’d like to return to your search in order to refine it further, click Search in the green top navigation bar. To start a completely new search, click the Reset button.

Need more help?

This brief guide should get you started with Parlianet. You may like to refer to our other Quick Guides, which include Which Search Should I Use?, Results and Analysis and Saved Searches.

Our Help Desk is available to take your telephone calls between 9:00 am and 5:30 pm (UK time), Monday to Friday. They will be happy to advise you on search techniques and help with data and technical queries.

Training courses are available for Parlianet – find out more or email training@justis.com.

You may also like to consult the extensive Parlianet Help Files and Frequently Asked Questions.

Last updated 14th August 2002