Searching the catalogue
One search box finds everything the catalogue describes: units of description, authority records, repositories, places and activities, by any of their names, titles, identifiers and the text of their descriptions. The search runs in PostgreSQL's full-text search, so it understands word forms (councils finds council) and weighs a match in a title above one in a long note.
There are two searches:
- The public catalogue's (
/discover), for anyone: it finds only what is published. - The Workspace's (
/search), for staff: it finds drafts too, with what your role lets you read.
Writing a query
Type words as you would into a web search engine:
| You type | It finds |
|---|---|
bridge council |
Both words, anywhere |
"town council" |
The phrase |
council -minutes |
council, leaving out anything with minutes |
bridge OR ferry |
Either word |
Narrowing the results
The results page has facets beside the list:
- Kind: archival descriptions, authority records, activities, places or repositories, with how many of each were found;
- Level of description: fonds, series, file, item and the institution's own levels;
- Repository: which institution holds it;
- Dates: a range of years, from and to.
Choose a value to narrow the list; choose Everything or Any to widen it again. The words found are picked out in each result.
Searching other catalogues
Where the institution federates with others, a search in the public catalogue offers Search other catalogues for this, and, where it belongs to a union catalogue, Search the union catalogue for this. See Federation.
Keeping a search
Signed-in users can Save this search, to run it again later and be told when new results appear. See Saved searches.
Search statistics
Search statistics (/search/statistics, for administrators) shows what people searched for, in the public catalogue and in the Workspace: what was searched most, what found nothing, and how many results searches found on average. The searches that found nothing are the most useful list: they show what people look for that the catalogue does not yet describe, or describes in other words. Nothing about who searched is kept.
When something does not appear
The search index is brought up to date as descriptions change. If a published unit does not appear in the public search, check that its title or name is published, not only the unit; an entity is found by the published values it has.