CBD Standard Search: Help


The CBD Standard Search interface provides a range of search options within an easy-to-use graphical interface. Each search area is discussed below; you may use just one or any number of search areas to perform your search.

Text Boxes, with Optional Fields

You may put in words or phrases into either of the text boxes. The system will perform loose proximity matching, so phrases may be entered as is, without any other notation.
e.g. broad agency announcement

Automatic word stemming, or truncation, is also performed. If you put in explo the search will retreive explosion, explosions, and exploding. Word stemming only works on words of three characters or more.

Synonymous or like terms should be separated by a semicolon (;). Do not use a Boolean "OR" since this will give false results.
e.g. bomb; explosion; munition

The default setting is to search the entire record for your terms. If you prefer, you may use the pull-down menu to search for terms only if they appear in the Title, Agency Name, Contact, Text Words, Contract Awarded to, Contract Number, or Sole-Source Number fields.

Boolean Operator Pull-down Menu
Use the pull-down menu to link the two text boxes in some way.

AND Terms from both boxes must be present
OR Terms from either box may be present
NOT Terms from the first box must be present, but only if terms from the second box are not present.

Venn
Date Searching
You may search for a single date, or a range of dates. Please format your dates in this format: YYYYMMDD
e.g. 19981031 to search for notices appearing on October 31, 1998.

You may also search the latest update by using the checkbox on the form. This will provide hits for the latest day's CBD issue. The CBD publishes each day Monday through Friday, excluding Federal Holidays.

Document Types
You may limit your search to any number of the listed document types. Not all document types are published on a regular basis.

Technically, Sources Sought notices aren't indexed in the Document Type field, but we have included them as a choice on this menu for your convenience.

Categories
You may limit your search to any number of the listed categories. Not all categories are published on a regular basis. To select more than one category, hold down the Ctrl key when making selections.
Proposal Due Date Searching
You may search for a single date, or a range of dates. Please format your dates in this format: YYYYMMDD
e.g. 19981031 to search for proposals due on October 31, 1998.

To search for proposals due after a certain date, use a date far in the future in the second box. This will search for all dates in between.

Hit Count
Use this feature to see how many items your search will retrieve, without having to go to a results screen. Use this to narrow your search to a managable number.
Display Results
When you select this, all results are sorted and then displayed on a separate page. Be aware that it may take several seconds to sort large search sets.

Search results may be displayed in the following ways: