Search tips

Search tips: Did you know?

• Search terms are not case sensitive
• Fewer search terms bring more results
• “Quote marks” find exact phrases
• Too many or too few results? Try Advanced search
• Using NOT (upper case) narrows results: Austen NOT Jane
• Using NEAR (upper case) finds two words close to each other: Shakespeare NEAR war
• Using OR (upper case) brings more results: Leeds OR Bradford
• Use AND or NOT instead of + or – signs
• Too many results? Try filtering by subject (on the right of the results page)
• Too many results? Try searching by database in Advanced search
• Use XOR (upper case) to find documents containing either of two words, but not both: cat XOR dog.
• Many records are not described by name or place, so try searching by date and subject.
• Many catalogue entries use the spelling of surnames or places as given in the original documents. Try using asterisks instead of vowels. J*nk*ns will find Jenkyns, Jenkens, Jeynkyns as well as Jenkins