Searching Tips

The catalogue provides three search options:

• Simple search
• Advanced search
• Browse

Simple search

  1. To search the collection, start typing your search term into the search box. A drop-down menu will offer you some options relating to your search. If you see the record you are looking for in the drop-down menu, simply click on the record to navigate to it. If you do not see what you are searching for, press enter and all of the search results will be displayed.

  2. You can then filter your search results using the menus on the left hand side of the page. You can limit your search results to a specific level of archival description, creator, name, place, or subject.

  3. Make use of special characters (also known as wildcards) to help make your search more specific. Some of the more common wildcards are described below:

a) Use quotation marks ("") around your search term to search for exact wording. Eg. "school" will find school but not schools. Quotation marks should also be used for searching specific reference numbers or unique identifiers (e.g. "SGHMS/1/1/1").

b) Use asterisks () as multiple character wildcards. Eg. In order to search for anything related to schools, schooling, preschool etc. use school*
c) Use question marks (?) as single character wildcards. Eg. polic? will find police and policy

Advanced search

You can also make use of the advanced search option, which allows you to build complex queries to search in the system. A number of filters are available to narrow your search.

  1. Click on the search box. A drop-down menu will offer you the advanced search option- click on this. Enter a search term in the advanced searchbox. Use a single keyword or more advanced queries using the wildcards as described above.

  2. Select a specific field from the drop-down list to limit your search to that field.

  3. Add new criteria as required.

  4. Use the search filters on the left to narrow your search.

  5. Click the "Search" button at the bottom of the screen to perform the search.

Browse
Another option is to browse archival descriptions by clicking the browse button to the left of the search bar.

  1. Click on “Titles”, “Names”, “Subjects”, “Places” or “Images” to browse an alphabetical list of titles, names, subjects, places or images.

  2. Click on “Most recent” to change the order of the list to show the most recent changes to the catalogue first.

  3. Click on “Alphabetic” to revert to alphabetical order.

  4. If you are browsing “Names” you have the further option to enter a query in the “Names” specific searchbox at the top of the page. This will confine your search to Names.