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Learn how to search our collections, including tips and tricks to maximise your results
Search guidance
Simple search
To use the simple search just enter your search term in the box and press the 'Search' button. As you type in three characters you will be presented with autocomplete suggestions to help guide your input term. A search will be performed across all the fields in all the records in our catalogue.
The results are initially displayed as a grid. You can change this to view the results as a list by clicking the ‘List’ button. You can further order the results by relevance, alphabetically, chronologically, by folder or items first or by reference number.
Collection Tree
The collection tree shows all our collections and their hierarchy. If you know the company or collection you wish to search within, you can click on + on the left-hand side and expand it to show all the records. Once you have found the collection you wish to search within navigate to the right side and click on ‘View'.
Filter
You can filter through various types of content you're looking for by clicking the dropdown buttons. You can refine and add multiple filters from each category to help further define your search criteria. Types of filters include: Brand; Media Type and Topic.
Advanced Search
If you want to narrow down your search results you can use the Advanced search page. This allows you to narrow searches down to specific fields, such as title, year, description, collection and reference number.
The fields provided are:
Description: Use this to search through the descriptions of all the records in our catalogue.
RefNo: Use this field if you already know the reference number ("Ref No") of the record you are looking for. This will be an alpha-numeric code, always starting with "GB1752".
All fields: This searches all fields of all the records in our catalogue.
Date: You can search for dates in a variety of formats e.g 1890 or 1880-1895, 19th century, 1900s, early 19th century, mid 19th century, late 19th century or c1890.
Collection: Searches for a specific collection within the catalogue.
Location: NL or UK archive