Introduction to Special Collections

You can search within our finding aids using the "Search the Archives" box at the bottom of the HOME page.

You can also use the magnifying glass icon in the blue navigation banner to jump to a page with just the search options on it.  It works the same way here as it does on the HOME page.

The search box's default setting is "Keyword."  This means that you can type any kind of word or name into the box and it will look for this term in the ENTIRE text of the finding aid.  It is often helpful to begin here, then browse or filter your results.

By selecting a different option from the "Search field" menu, you limit your search to text that appears ONLY in that field.  

• Title:  Name of the collection 
• Creator:  Person, people, or organization that made the collection
• Subject:  What the collection is about.  The types of subjects are Genre/Form, Geographic, Occupation, Topical, and Uniform Title.  They are taken from controlled vocabularies like the Library of Congress Subject Terms.  Subjects can help group similar things together, but they do not always use the word or words that you would expect.  
• Notes:  Scope and Content Note and Biographical/Historical Note for the collection.  The Biographical/Historical Note provides necessary historical and/or biographical information to contextualize the collection.  If appropriate, there can be more than one.  The Scope and Content Note provides an overview of the types of materials in the collection and how they have been arranged. It may include the different levels of organization (series and subseries), the types and formats of material, and any other contextual or arrangement information the archival staff feels is necessary to use the collection.
• Identifier:  The collection's Identifier functions like the Call Number of a book.  The Identifier is a three letter prefix, followed by a string (e.g. MSS 0113; MSS 0099-F0948)

You can also type a year into one or both of the "From year" and "To year" fields.  Collections can have two kinds of date ranges:  inclusive or bulk.  Inclusive dates include everything in the collection and bulk dates indicate what the majority of the collection contains.  These fields will only search the collection's inclusive dates.

Create a complex search by adding additional rows to your query.  

Add as many additional rows as you would like.  Alternatively, you could begin with a broader search and narrow your results with filters.

Advanced search options are centered on using the connecting terms AND, OR, and NOT between words to narrow or broaden results.  These terms are also referred to as "Boolean Operators."

• AND:  Using AND will narrow a search and give you results that have BOTH terms (e.g. "ship" AND "diary")
• OR:  Using OR will broaden a search and give you results with EITHER term (e.g. "ship" OR "boat")
• NOT:  Using NOT will exclude potential results from a search (e.g. "print" NOT "newspaper")

It is possible to type the words AND, OR, and NOT into the primary search box instead of additional additional rows. 

• Find an exact phrase, by putting quotes around it (e.g. "Return Day")
• The search will look for your word exactly as you have typed it, even if it is misspelled 
• To ensure that you find appropriate variations of a word, you can use an asterisk (*)
  • wom*n will return women and woman
  • print* will return print, prints, printing, printer, etc. 
• Searches are not case sensitive, so capitalization doesn't matter

The search results view will seem similar to the COLLECTIONS browse view, with the addition of the search you conducted in a yellow banner at the top of the page. 

If you click on Refine Search, it will bring up the search box you saw on the previous page and allow you to narrow your results.  

Alternatively, you can use the Filter Results" box or 'Additional filters" list to the right of the results to narrow your results.  You will recognize "Subject," "Language," and "Names" from the COLLECTIONS browse page.  Navigate to the Browsing Archival Collections section of the guide for additional information on those filters.

Your search results will be sorted by "Relevance" by default.  You can also sort by Title (alphabetical) or Year (chronological), if you would prefer.  It is important to understand that you are viewing several different Types of results on the same list:  Archival Object, Collection Category, Collection, Organization, Digital Record, and Subject.

The most confusing, but important, distinction is between "Collection" and "Archival Object." If you filter results by "Collection" under "Type," the database will ONLY search information that appears at the highest level of the finding aid, like the collection's Scope and Content or Biographical/Historical Note.  This may be helpful to find the most relevant information, but it will not necessarily be comprehensive.  Collections can be extremely large and only the most broadly significant information is provided at this collection level.  

If you filter results by "Archival Object" under "Type," the database will ONLY search information that appears in the series, subseries, folders, or items of a collection.  If a term is repeated throughout a collection, you will have many Archival Object results from a single Collection.   Looking at the "Found in" line at the bottom of an Archival Object result can be very helpful.  It will immediately tell you where it is located within the hierarchy of the finding aid.

In addition to filtering by "Type" on the right side of the page, you can browse through the list and identify the Type by its color and icon:

• Collection [Red box]: 
• Archival Object [Green document]:  
• Subject [Purple tag]:  
• Name:
  • Organization [Blue building]: 
  • Person [Blue person]: 
  • Family [Blue group of people]: 
• Digital Record [Red generic image icon]: