|
||||||
BROWSE & SEARCH |
||||||
|
Quick Search: Introduction Performing a quick search of British Online Archives is easy. Simply type one or more search terms into the keyword box and hit the 'Enter' key or click on the search button below it. Choosing the right terms (the words or phrase that best describe the information you want to find) is the key to finding the information you need. Start with the obvious and then, if necessary, add further search terms or try synonyms to refine your results. You should note that, if you are logged in by IP address or password, any Quick Search is limited by default to your licensed collections. If you wish to broaden your results to include all collections, you should use the Advanced Search options. Capitalisation & Accents/Diacritics Searches are NOT case sensitive or affected by accents or diacritics. All letters, regardless of how you type them, will be understood as lower case. For example, searches for labour party, Labour Party, and LaBouR PARTY will all return the same results. Likewise a search for 'francois mitterand' will retrieve 'François Mitterand'. Keyword Limitations A maximum of 5 keywords is allowed, and a minimum keyword length of 3 characters. Multiple keywords in any Quick Search are linked by a default Boolean operation 'AND'. Category Browser Alternatively from the homepage, it is also possible to browse collections by subject category in the drop-down menu. As with the Quick Search, if you are logged in by IP address or password, any Category Browser results are limited by default to your licensed collections. Automatic 'AND' Queries As a default, the Quick Search only returns pages that include all of your search terms. So there is no need to include the Boolean 'AND' between terms. To restrict a search further, just include more terms. Truncation Use the asterisk to search for a truncated search term (e.g. 'polit*' will retrieve instances of 'polite', 'politeness', 'politic', 'political', 'politician', 'politicians', 'politics', 'polity'). |
