The National Trade Data Bank The Export Connection What is the National Trade Data Bank The National Trade Data Bank (NTDB) is produced by the U.S. Department of commerce and contains how-to guides, contact lists, calendar of events, tables, time series, statistical publications, market research reports, embassy reports and business directories. Subject coverage includes international trade, business, economics, imports and exports. The Army Handbook of Foreign Countries can be found here. Information is collected from 19 federal bodies including the CIA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy, the Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Trade Representative, the International Trade Administration and others. NTDB is updated each month and each new disk states what has been changed, added, or deleted. How to Search the NTDB The main index offers the following search options: TEXTWORD Keyword search of the document text. SOURCE The Agency of publication. TOPIC A broad subject area. Example: International Economic Statistics PROGRAM A publication or series. Example: Market Research Reports TITLE Keyword search of document titles. COMMODITY Search by product. LOCATION Geographic area. ITEM Assigned item numbers. Example: IT Market 111110223 Select any of the five search options by highlighting the option (using the arrow keys) and pressing . Press F2 for more information about the highlighted program or agency. Types of Searches Basic Search Can type search words or can use words found in the "word list" or "term list". Place a check in the box to treat words as a phrase or if the words occur within 1-9 words of each other. Structured Search Using the same indexes you can do a 3 word or phrase search. The structured search allows boolean searching (AND, OR, NOT). Free Form Search Allows you to type your own words or phrase. Place "quotes" around each phrase. How to Display Search Results To view search results, press the F3 key. If your search retrieved more than one item, a list of titles will display. View any title by highlighting it and pressing . If pressing F3 displays something other than the results you expected, press to return to the previous menu. Press F8 to mark the item you wish to view, and then press F3. How to Print Search Results To print search results, press F5, highlight the Print option and press . How to Download Search Results To copy search results to a disk press F5, highlight the Copy to File option and press . Please specify the type of file to be created: text file, spreadsheet or ASCII delimited text. Function Keys F1-HELP Provides instructions on the searching options available. It gives a series of choices on what a user should do next to continue in his/her search. F2-INFO Provides information on the source agency of the currently active program. The F2 key provides a description of the document's information program including NTDB/NESE footnotes, and a contact name, address and telephone number to direct any questions specific to information contained in the information program. F3-BULLETINS Provides information about the current disc. (Primary Screen only.) VIEW Displays available data. ZOOM Displays items using full width of the screen. F4-PLAN Displays the current OR/AND/NOT search expression. HDRS Provides definitions to column codes in matrix files. ATCH Displays a list of worksheets and/or graphs (if any)attached to a document. F5-COPY Allows user to: copy all marked documents to a single disk file without the need to append each document to the file manually. Depending on the type of document selected, the user can copy it as a .TXT file (all types of documents) .WK1 worksheet .SDF ASCII-delimited file F7-LOGIC Allows you to change the current OR/AND/NOT logic for your selection strategy. FIND Allows you to search for a word or word string within an item. F8-MARK Allows user to mark a range of selections at once. Press F8 for the first item to be selected. Move to the last item to be selected using the arrow or page down keys. Press F8 to mark the last item in the list. All items between the first mark and the last mark will be selected. F9-ITEM Displays the previous item. FIND Searches for the previous occurrence of a word. F10-ITEM Displays the next listed item. FIND Searches for the next occurrence of a word. DEL Deselects the current highlighted entry. It deletes the title name from title list. ALT Returns you to the Primary Selection Menu. ENTER Accepts selected items and continues or it deselects a currently marked item. ESC Allows you to close the current window and return to the previous window menu. If you need help please ask a librarian. Victoria Packard, Texas A&M at Kingsville 12/98