Version 1.0 

July 2016

LSN Library User Guide 
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Contents

Introduction.............................................................................................................................................2

Purpose................................................................................................................................................................................ 2

General Information....................................................................................................................................................... 2

System Overview ..................................................................................................................................................... 2

LSN Library Link.............................................................................................................................................................. 2

Points of Contact.............................................................................................................................................................. 2

LSN Library Home Page ................................................................................................................................................ 3

Basic Search ............................................................................................................................................................... 3

Opening a Document.............................................................................................................................................. 4

Using the LSN Library Search.............................................................................................................6

Searches............................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Page Layout................................................................................................................................................................ 6

LSN Accession Number Searches ...................................................................................................................... 6

Search Navigation.................................................................................................................................................... 7

Actions.......................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Advanced Search...................................................................................................................................................... 8

Document Properties and Properties Searches .......................................................................................... 9

Saving a Search.......................................................................................................................................................10

Ways to Narrow Your Search....................................................................................................................................12

Facet Tree .................................................................................................................................................................12

Facet Chart................................................................................................................................................................14

Time Series Chart...................................................................................................................................................15

Query Builder ..........................................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction

Purpose

This User Guide provides you with information and tips for using the Licensing Support Network 

(LSN) Library Search Tool. This tool will allow users to perform searches for documents located 

in the LSN Library.

General Information

System Overview

The LSN Library Search Tool is a Web-based system that allows users to narrow search results 

and quickly identify documents of interest. A variety of features are available to enhance the 

search process. Each of the features will help users to tailor their searches to receive the most 

accurate set of results. 

LSN Library Link

The below URL can be used to access LSN Library:

https://adamspublic.nrc.gov/navigator

Points of Contact

For assistance contact PDR.Resource@nrc.gov

Telephone: 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/pdr.html
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LSN Library Home Page

When the user accesses the LSN Library using this URL, https://adamspublic.nrc.gov/navigator,

the Home Page for the LSN Library will appear. From this page you are able to enter basic 

search criteria. 

Basic Search 

To conduct a basic search, enter your search criteria into the search bar, then click search. 
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The results of your search will be displayed, similar to what is shown below

Opening a Document

Once you have completed a search, you can open the documents that were found.

In Chrome:

Locate the document you wish to open and click on the document’s title. 

The document will download in the downloads folder.

Click on the down arrow at the bottom of the screen and choose open to view the document. 

The document will open in a new tab. 
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In Internet Explorer:

Locate the document you wish to open and click on the document’s title.

A pop up will appear at the bottom of the screen. Click Open to view the document. The 

document will open in a new window. 

In Safari:

Locate the document you wish to open and click on the document’s title. 

The document will open in a new window while it gets downloaded in the Downloads folder.

In Firefox:

Locate the document you would like to open and click the document title. A popup will appear 

asking what should Firefox do with this file.

The pop up gives the options to open with Adobe Acrobat or save the file. 

Choose ‘Open with Adobe Acrobat’. The Document will open in a new browser.
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Using the LSN Library Search

Searches

Page Layout

From the search results page you are able to open and close the panes on the sides and bottom 

of the results. Click on any of the highlighted arrows and the appropriate pane will open or 

close.

LSN Accession Number Searches 

If you know the LSN Accession Number for the document you are seeking, enter it into the 

search box in the upper right corner and then click the search icon. 
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Search Navigation

If you have completed more than one search, use the buttons to go back and forth 

between searches. 

Actions

Once you have selected a document, click on the Actions drop down for the options available 

for that document. The options include Open, Download, View Link, and Query Builder. Open

and Download allow you to open a document or download it unto your computer.

View Link allows you to copy and paste a hyperlink for the document into emails, chats and web 

pages. For the purpose of the LSN Library, there will only be one version of each document so 

choosing released, current or choosing a specific version will yield the same hyperlink.

Query Builder is explained in more detail on page 15 below. 
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Advanced Search

For a more in-depth search, click on Show Advanced and the advanced search options will be 

displayed. 

Enter search criteria in to the available boxes. Once the search criteria are entered click the 

search icon . 

For example, conducting the advanced search below using “vessel” for the ‘All of these words’

field and “head” for the ‘None of these words’ field will return results than contain the word 

vessel but do not contain the word head. 

There are three other tabs beside the Advanced search tab as seen in the below screenshots.

Query Expansion is not applicable to LSN

Refined by is not applicable to LSN
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Query Tree 

The Query Tree can be used to display your query and edit it using the three icons 

beside the keywords i.e. delete, exclude documents or edit.

Document Properties and Properties Searches

Each document has a list of properties such as Date and LSN Accession Number. To see the 

document properties for any document click . The properties will display below the 

document title. 

Below is a list of commonly used LSN Library document properties that you are able to search 

by:

Property Name LSN Library Property

Accession Number lsn_accession_number

Information Source information_source

Participant Accession Number participant_accession_number

Date Date

Number of Images number_of_images

Addressee Name addressee_name

Addressee Affiliation addressee_affiliation

Author Name author_name

Author Affiliation author_affiliation

Document Number document_number

Document Type document_type
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Note: To search on a specific property, copy a property’s LSN Library designation from the 

second column for a field search into the search box. As an alternative, the advance search can 

also be used to search on a specific property. 

Below is an example of how you would use one of the above properties in a search. 

Saving a Search

The LSN Library Search allows you to save your searches so you can access them again later. 

Click the button.

In Chrome: 

A pop up will appear allowing you to name your search. Then click on the OK button. 

A popup will open at the bottom of the screen. Select Show in Folder to save in the desired 

location on your computer. 
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In Internet Explorer:

A popup will open at the bottom of the screen. Click Save then Save As. Select the folder you 

want to save the search in.

In Safari:

A pop up will appear as below indicating “you open your downloads folder to copy the file to a 

desired folder and filename”. Then click on the OK button. 

In Firefox:

A pop up will open asking what should Firefox do with this file?

The pop up gives the options to ‘Open with Notepad or other’ or ‘Save file’

Choose Save file option. By default the Search gets saved in the downloads folder.
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Opening a Saved Search

To access a saved search click on the Icon. Choose the search from the folder you saved 

the search under and click ‘Open’ to display the search results. For Firefox, click on ‘Choose’ to 

display the search results after clicking on the saved search.

Ways to Narrow Your Search

Facet Tree

The facet tree is located to the left of the search results. Use the facet tree to refine search 

results. This section will walk you through how to use the facet tree with step-by-step 

instructions below. To see more options under any facets, click on ‘More Facets’ and a new 

window will open. 
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To filter the available facet values, type what you are looking for into the Filter box and press 

Enter. The results will display below. 

Alternatively, you can access a facet tree criterion by clicking the check box next to that 

criterion. Then scroll down and click search. You can choose to add the criteria to your current 

search or you can choose to start a new search.
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Note: You are able to click select more than one facet tree criterion at a time.

Facet Chart

The facet chart is located to the right of your search results. It allows you to visualize how many 

documents are available as meeting a certain criterion. You are able to change the criterion you 

are looking for by selecting the drop down box. To narrow your search results, click on any of 

the names to the left of the bars representing the number of documents meeting that criterion. 

The new search results will display.
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Time Series Chart 

The time series chart, located just below the search results, allows you to see the frequency by 

date of documents meeting the search criteria. Each bar represents a certain period of time. 

Click on any of the bars in the chart to narrow your search results to that period of time. Once 

you select the time period click on

For example: Click on the 1993 bar. Then click on and the results for that year will appear. 

The new results will only include documents from 1993 and, as seen below, the time series 

chart updates to show a bar for each month in 1993. You can click again on the month box to 

obtain the results for that month of the year.

Query Builder 

Query builder allows you to build custom queries. Click next to any of your search results 

to open the query builder. Select the type of query you want to create from the highlighted 

drop down box. Select the type of search you want to conduct from the highlighted choices at 

the bottom of the screen. The query builder will collapse and the results will display. 
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The user can build a query based on specific document by highlighting any of the search results 

then click on ‘Actions’ as seen in the screenshot below
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Click on drop down option in ‘Actions’ as indicated in the screenshot below 

Click on ‘Query Builder’. You can build your query by choosing any of the options highlighted in 

in the red box in the below screenshot and click on ‘add’ or ‘remove’ if you need to remove one 

or more of the words in the query box. Click on ‘AND Search’ to add to initial search.
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The search results are displayed as shown in the screenshot below.
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The following are several of the types of queries available in the drop down box.

Proximity Query – Used to create queries for words within a certain distance of each other. You 

can select if you would like the words to be in the same sentence or in the same order. 

Date Query – Allows you to specify a date range to be added to your search query. You can 

select the start date and end date to determine the search date range.
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Field Query – Allows you to choose a field from the drop down box, e.g., title, and add a value 

for the selected field to the search query.