How do I search the database?
Please note that the database has been designed to work with Firefox 2.0 and
Internet Explorer 7.0 or better. If you are having problems with the catalogue
these may be resolved by using one of these browsers.
Quick search
You can perform a quick search by using the box at the top right hand corner
of the home page. This will search across the title and description fields in
the catalogue. Where more than one term is entered, only records which contain
both terms will be retrieved, but these words may not appear next to each other
in the text. To search for an exact phrase, use double quotation marks.
Advanced search
To refine your search choose ‘Advance Search’ from the toolbar along the top
of the screen, and then select catalogue.
Anytext
Use this field to search across all the fields in the database. To search for
an exact phrase, use double quotation marks.
RefNo
If you know the reference number of the collection or item that you are
looking for, you can enter it in this field.
Level
This field has a picklist to allow you to search on the different
hierarchical levels within collections. For an explanation of the different
levels see the Glossary.
Title or Description
You can narrow down your search by choosing to search in either the title or
description field only.
Refine Search Criteria
If you have entered more than one search term you can refine your search
further within the AnyText, Title and Description searches by selecting ‘Refine
Search Criteria’ which gives you three options:
- To search for records which contain all your search terms
- To search for records that contain at least one of the search terms
- To exclude certain words from your search
Date
You can also refine your search further by entering a particular year or date
range (eg. 1967, 19th century, 1930-1955).
Search Results
Your list of search results will be presented in three columns showing the
document reference number, title of the record and date(s) of the records.
The total number of records found will be shown at the top of the display. If
your search has retrieved more than 10 records, use the Next, Previous, Start
and End links at the top of the screen to navigate around your results list.
To see more details about any of the entries of this list simply click
anywhere within the specific entry to be taken to the full catalogue record
display. Each display will provide contextual information about the record at
the top of the screen (e.g. name of the collection in which the record is found
and other levels of description within the collection). Clicking in the RefNo
field will take you to the collection browser where you can see the hierarchical
context of the record (ie how it relates to other records in the collection) and
see other records within the same collection.