Word Search Tips

Basics

To perform a basic search:

·         In the Keyword Search box, type the word or phrase you want to find (Note: Word Search is not case-sensitive).

·         Press Enter or click Search to launch the search.

When the search is complete, the Search Results page will open.  The Search Results page tells you:

·         The number of records found.

·         The word or expression you searched for.

·         Related words searched for, if you used Lexicon Options or if you searched a date range.

·         A list of the records found.

To view any of the found records, click the link for that record in the list.  A detail of the record will open.

Note: Word Search will find only words that have been indexed.  Some words are not indexed, such as conditions needed for Boolean searches (AND, NOT, OR, TO), and certain articles and adjectives (AN, ANY, BOTH, IT, IS, OF, OFF, THE, etc.).

To refine your word search and search only specific data fields, click Advanced Search.  In the Advanced Search window, you can:

·         Enter words or phrases to be searched in a specific field of the data. 

·         Use Boolean searches within the same field such as BLUE OR RED. 

·         Enter terms in multiple fields.  If you place a word or phrase in more than one field, the search will return all records whose contents match the first entered field, AND the second entered field, etc.  A blank field will not be searched.

Then, press Enter or click Search to launch the search.

  

Search Tips

Note:  Word Search is not case-sensitive.  Since you can use certain symbols such as parentheses and quotes to phrase your search, you cannot search for punctuation in your data.

You can enter search terms into the Keyword Search box (or a specific field in Advanced Search) using any of these methods:

·         Type the word or phrase you want to find

·         Paste text you have copied from another application, such as e-mail or a web page

Phrase Search:  Place double quotation marks around any words you want to search as a phrase.  For example, “Bull Run”.Word Search will find records where those words appear in that combination.      Without the quotes, Word Search will search for Bull AND Run, finding records that contain both words, but not necessarily in combination.

Wildcard Search:  Use asterisks and question marks to expand the scope of your search.  This is helpful when you’re unsure of the spelling.  For example:

·         Fitz* will find all occurrences of Fitzgerald, Fitzhugh, Fitzpatrick, etc.

·         *ington will find all occurrences of Arrington, Paddington, Washington, etc.

·         Min?r will find all occurrences of Miner and Minor.

·         Acet??? will find all occurrences of 7-letter words beginning with “acet”, such as acetate and acetosa, but will not find occurrences of acetabulum.

Boolean Search:   Boolean logic, using the conditions AND, OR, NOT and TO can help you expand or refine your Word Search.

For example:

AND:  To match, the record must include both words. BRASS AND BUTTON will find records that include both words, whether or not they appear next to each other. Including additional AND conditions will reduce the number of records that match.

OR:  To match, the record must include one or the other of the words, or both. BRASS OR SILVER will find records with BRASS, records with SILVER, and records with both terms. The OR condition will usually find more records than an AND condition.

NOT:  To match, the record must not include the word. VIRGINIA NOT “WEST VIRGINIA” will find any record with Virginia, but exclude those with West Virginia.

AND NOT:   The same as NOT.

TO:  Allows you to search for an alphabetic or an alpha-numeric range.  For example, B TO F will find every word that begins with B, C, D, E, and F.  Searching for 3 TO 49 will search for every word (or string of characters) that begins with 3 through 49 so it will find 30003, 48FN6, 47", 6, 10/31/1963 (because of the 31 in the date), etc.

OR NOT:  To match, the record must include either the word that precedes OR NOT, or excludes the word that follows OR NOT.  For example, GEORGE OR NOT WASHINGTON will find all records that either include GEORGE, or that don’t include WASHINGTON.

Combine conditions using parentheses. (BRASS OR SILVER) AND BUTTON will find records with the word button, but only those that also contain the word brass or silver.

Note:   When using Boolean logic and searching specific fields, use the search field code for each keyword.  For example, if the code for the Material field is M and the code for the Object field is O, you might create a search like this: (M=BRASS OR M=SILVER) AND O=BUTTON.  This search will find only records where the object name is button, and the material field contains either brass or silver.

Date Search:  You can use two formats to search for ranges of dates.  Both examples below will find records that include any year from 1800 to 1900.

·         1800..1900

·         19th Century

In a flexible date field, circa dates are defined as 10 years on either side of the date specified and you may enter the circa date using any of the following variations

·         Circa or circa

·         Ca or ca

·         Ca. or ca.

·         C or c

·         C. or c.

If you enter Circa 1850 in a flexible date field, word search will find that record if your search phrase contains any of the dates between 1840 and 1860.For example:      Word search will find a record with C. 1850 in a flexible date field if you search for 1825..1845.

Special Characters:  You can use the following special characters when searching:

·         - (the minus symbol), meaning “NOT”

·         + the addition symbol), meaning “AND”

Adjacent:  In addition to searching for whole words, and phrases, you can also search for words that are close to one another.  Use the expression “WITHIN 10” to define how close the words are to one another.  For example, CAMERA WITHIN 5 DIGITAL will find all records where DIGITAL is found within 5 words of CAMERA.