Getting started
Navigating the site
The menus at the top of the pages provide access to all the pages in the site. In addition, most pages will have a 'breadcrumb' list of links at the top of the page which allow you to return to the advanced search form, or to your search results.
The catalogue has two types of search: Quick Search and Advanced Search.
Quick Search
The Quick Search box on the home page will search across two of the fields used in our catalogue: title and description (see our glossary for the meaning of these field terms).
Simply enter your search term, being a word or phrase that you would expect to find in the title or description fields, and click search.
The quick search can sometimes produce a large number of results, which can be difficult to work with. The advanced search offers extra options (such as narrowing results by date) and is generally the more useful option.
Advanced Search
Click on the 'Advanced Search' button in the menu at the top of the page to open the search form.
The advanced search form includes a number of fields which can be used to search across. It is best to start with terms in just one or two fields. If this returns too many results, you can add extra terms to narrow down your search. In this way, you are less likely to miss any useful results.
| AccNo | Accession number for an entire collection |
| DocRefNo | Document reference number for a specific item or record |
| Any Text | Searches across all available text fields |
| Date | Date an item or collection of items was created |
| Title | A short description of an item or collection such as ‘Marriage register’ |
| Description | Further detail on the contents of an item or collection |
| Level | The position of a record in the hierarchy (see 'Tips and tricks' for a description of levels and the way we catalogue) |
| Thumbnail | Enter * to search for any records with an image attached, or the AccNo of a collection for items from that collection with an image attached |
| Place Code | A short code used to identify the place to which a record relates (see our 'Tips and tricks' for examples of using the Place Codes) |
The AnyText, Title and Description fields also have the option to 'Refine Search Criteria' which lets you specify how your search terms are used. See our 'Tips and tricks' for examples of using this option.
Other searches
You can also search for personal and corporate names and places. Click on the arrow next to Advanced Search and select the People Search (for personal and corporate names) or the Places Search (for places). Search for a name using the available fields and the results will show you details about the person or place and provide a link to search for any records linked to that person or place in the Archival catalogue.
'Search Results' page
Results which match your search are shown on the search results page in the form of a 'hitlist', which lists the Reference numbers, level, title and date for each record.
- A drop down menu to change the number of hits per page is shown at the top of the list along with a button to refine your search results
- The total number of matches is shown at the bottom of the list, along with controls to navigate through all the results.
- You can sort the results by click on any of the column headings.
- Click on any of the results to see more information on that particular record.
- The results can include records from any level in our catalogues, from Collection level down to Item level
'Record View' page
Opening the record view for one of your results will show you all the information relating to that entry in the catalogue.
- At the top of the page is displayed the context for the current record. This shows the position or context of the record within its collection and can give additional information on where the record came from, or who created it.
- At the bottom of this page are controls to navigate through all your results in order.
- The search word or words you used will be highlighted in yellow.
- The main part of the page lists all the fields which contain information for that record. The number of fields will vary from record to record, but certainly all item level records should have a DocRefNo, Title, Date and Level as a minimum.
- Make sure to note down the DocRefNo if you want to view or refer back to the record. Quoting this number will help us quickly identify the correct record.
'Hierarchy Browser' page
The hierarchy browser shows the hierarchy or tree which forms the basis for our catalogues and allows you to browse through a full collection. After finding a record which matches your search, it can often be useful to browse the full collection, to understand where that record comes from, and possibly find other related records which may also be useful.
- From the Record View page, click on the title to open the hierarchy browser.
- The hierarchy will be opened to show where that record belongs in the structure.
- You can open or close any part of the hierarchy by clicking on the Plus or Minus symbol at the start of each line.
- If you click on the text for any line, the record view for that entry in the catalogue will be opened.