How to search
Simple Search
Enter the word(s) you want to look for in the Search Box on the left under the menu, and click on the magnifying glass to start the search.
The simple search finds an Exact Match for all words entered. Note! If you use a short word like 'pet' a simple search will also find 'Pete', 'petal' and 'trumpet'.
You can amend the Simple Search by clicking on the three dots in the search box to reveal more specific search parameters.
Keyword: Similar to Google Search, a keyword search returns results ordered by relevance. Searching on "road sign" will prioritise records that contain the full string "road sign", but will also include records that contain the individual words "road" or "sign".
Boolean: Allows greater fine-tuning than keyword searching, but does not return results by relevance. To do a Boolean search, add the following symbols at the beginning or end of words in the search string:
- +: A plus sign at the beginning of a word indicates that it must be present in all results returned.
- -: A minus sign at the beginning of a word indicates that it should not be present in any of results returned.
- *: An asterisk appended to the end of a word serves as a truncation or "wildcard" operator. Results are returned where there is a match with the word preceding the asterisk.
- ": Using double quotation marks around words or a phrase returns results which contain the exact words or phrase as typed.
Exact match: This is the default Simple Search (see above)
Collections search
Select the Collections A-Z on the menu bar, scroll through the list and click on your choice.
Subject search
Select the Subject A-Z on the menu bar, scroll through the list and click on your choice. This will show items where the subject chosen is the MAIN feature of the image.
Tag search
Select Browse Tags from the menu, scroll through the list of keywords our images have been tagged with, and click on your choice. This will find all items with that Tag.
Advanced search
Select Advanced Search from the menu. This allows you to combine several options to refine your search.
Note to researchers: We use the full Dublin Core set in this archive but restrict the fields in public view. If you're a bona fide researcher and wish to see the full Dublin Core set for all items, please contact us for information on how to obtain researcher rights.
Examples (using box under menu)
Simple search
2015-07 > photos in July 2015
Frank Woolrych > photos of our friend Frank
Church Street > photos of Church Street (whatever the town!)
hat > photos with a hat in them (but you'll also get photos of thatch and hatchery - so be careful with short words)
Keyword search;
you can change it to this by clicking the three dots on the right of the boxChurch Street > photos of Church Street (but you'll also get photos with a Church and with a Street - you could get a lot)
Boolean search;
you can change it to this by clicking the three dots on the right of the boxWith a boolean search you can add +, - and * to refine things.
banjo male > photos with a banjo in and photos with a male in.
+banjo +male > only photos with both a banjo and a male in them)
+banjo -male > only photos with a banjo in and with no male in them)
uk* > photos with anything starting with uk in them (useful if you can't spell ukulele).
Advanced Search
Much more sophisticated - you can still enter keywords, but you can choose to look for those keywords in certain 'fields' (e.g. title, description), only in certain collections (of towns/cities) and you can search by location (street name, town, county).
You can access the Advanced Search on the menu bar and you'll find a guide on the search page.