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Search Query Types

  • Keyword: similar to Google Search, a keyword search returns results ordered by relevance. Searching on "ancient warfare" will prioritize records that contain the full string "ancient warfare", but will also include records that contain the individual words "ancient" or "warfare".
  • Boolean: allows greater fine-tuning than keyword search but does not return results by relevance. Do this by using certain characters at the beginning or end of words in the search string. Some examples:
    • + : a leading plus sign indicates that this word must be present in each row that is returned.
    • -  : a leading minus sign indicates that this word must not be present in any of the rows that are returned.
    • * : an appended asterisk serves as the truncation (or wildcard) operator. Words match if they begin with the word preceding the * operator.
    • " : a phrase that is enclosed within double quote characters matches only rows that contain the phrase literally, as it was typed.
    • More special characters and further information about boolean search can be found here
  • Exact match: returns records that contain at least one match to the order of words entered, like "Civil War". Use this search type if you need to search short words, like "war", and the keyword/boolean searches do not produce results.

 

Searching the Newspapers/Documents

  • To search the documents/newspapers start by typing in what you’re searching for in the search box. Then press + next to "Search" button and select your query type: Keyword, Boolean, or Exact Match.
  • Make sure the “File” checkmark is selected in record type (by default Item, File, Collection, Simple Simple Page are already selected for you)
  •  Click “Search”
  • From the search results, select a file and then click on the newspaper image to open it in your browser. Next, in order to locate a specific term in this newspaper issue, press Ctrl+F in Windows or Command+F in Macintosh keyboard and enter the same words, phrase or sentence used in your original search.  This will highlight the location of the text in the document.