Search help

This section is designed to give you more information about what you can search for and passes on some useful hints for better searching.

How to search

To search for a particular page or Collection item you need to select the appropriate search form. If you want to search for a web page within the web site you'll need to select the Search website option in the left hand menu, for Collection items you'll need to select Search collection or Search collection (advanced). Within the Search website and Search collections pages you'll simple need to enter a keyword or keywords (separated by operators - see below) and press the Search button. If you are using Search collection (advanced), you'll have the option of selecting from other filtering elements, such as Topic, Resource Type, Date etc.

Search words

When searching the Collection or the website use the most precise words you can. To increase accuracy and improve performance certain common English words are not used in the search. e.g. about, before, it, in etc, as well as single character entries.

Search operators

The searching mechanism supports logical operators such as OR, AND, NOT operators.
e.g. pin AND machine

Descriptive dates e.g. Mid 19th Century

Description		Date
19th Century		1801 - 1900
18th Century		1701 - 1800
Early 19th Century		1801 - 1825
Mid 19th Century		1826 - 1875
Late 19th Century		1876 - 1900
1st Quarter 18th Century		1701 - 1725
2nd Quater 18th Century		1726 - 1750
3rd Quarter 18th Century		1751 - 1775