Help
 

Searching for Images

There are various ways to search this image database

Searching

Search

The Search option appears on all pages and is located on the top right of the screen. This option allows you to search the image database for your chosen word.

Enter a word or phrase into the box and click on “Go”. The search looks for that word or phrase in all the information linked with each item record throughout the database.

Wildcards

The wildcard (%) can be used in place of letters or symbols to widen the search.

e.g. Entering engra% in the search box

Will find images where the words engrave, engraver or engraving are in the item record.

Using a wildcard is the best way to search for words that could be either singular or plural or when an apostrophe may be used.

eg Church%

Will find both church or churches in an item record.

eg Arthur% and Seat

Will find images where the item record includes either Arthur’+s Seat or Arthurs Seat.

Narrowing your search

When you are searching for more than one word or wish to leave out specific words from a search you can use AND, NOT and OR to narrow your search.

Using AND
A search for Holyrood AND Palace

Will find items with both words in their records. All search results returned will contain both Holyrood and Palace

Using NOT
A search for Holyrood NOT Palace

Will find items with Holyrood in their records but exclude records with that contain Palace from the search results. All search results returned will contain Holyrood but will not contain Palace.

Using OR
A search for Holyrood OR Palace

Will find items that contain Holyrood. It will also find all items that contain Palace in their records which will include Holyrood but also item records that might contain Linlithgow or Scone Palace. All search results returned will contain Holyrood and Palace.

Parentheses

Parentheses (or brackets) allows you to break down your search into sections.

A search for (Holyrood OR Scone) AND (Palace) finds all item records that contain Holyrood, Scone and Palace. All search results will contain Holyrood or Scone and Palace.

Advanced Search

If you already know some details of the image you require then you can find it quicker by using Advanced Search.

You can enter words in more than one field. Be as specific as possible in order to produce the best set of results.

The search results will be images that match all the words you have entered.

Two of the fields Artist and Type have drop down menus. These list all the Artists and Types on the database and you must choose what you want to search for from this list. In other fields you can input the words of your choice.

A – Z

Subjects are listed alphabetically. Click on the letter of the alphabet that is the same as the first letter of the word you are looking for to begin your search. Then click on the subject link. A gallery of images related to this subject will be displayed.

Subjects Search

Each image has one or more subjects which describe a feature of the image. You can search for images with these subjects by using Subjects Search in the menu on the left of the page.

Subjects are organised as a hierarchy of folders starting with a broader term and then becoming more specific with every following level.

If you click on Subjects Search you may search either on a broader term name e.g. Transport which will give you a selection of choices about Transport or a narrower term within Transport.

To find all the images with the subject Cars click on the folder Transport, then click on the folder Land which will display all the narrower subject terms contained within that folder heading including Cars.

The Subjects Search allows you to search for a particular place.

For example to find images of Princes Street. Click on the subject folder Places, then the subject folder Edinburgh where Princes Street will be listed, clicking on this link will show you a gallery of images of Princes Street.

Combining subject searching with searching by other fields

You can combine a Subjects Search with an Advanced Search. There are two steps. Use either Subjects Search (link to help information ) or the A-Z (link to help information) to find images on a particular subject. This will produce a Gallery of thumbnail images. From the Gallery page click on Refine Search. This will bring up the Advanced Search (link to help information page. Add a word or words to your chosen field/s and this will combine the search results from the Subjects Search with the additional word/s to produce a more precise set of results.

Searching by date

If you wish to search for a specific year enter the same year into both the From Date and To Date fields. Enter dates with 4 digits eg 1890.

You may also search by date ranges. Entering a From Date will find all the images from that year and after. Entering a To Date will find all the images from that year and before. Entering a year in both the From and To Date fields will create a date range and will find all the images that fall within that date range.

Browse

Selecting the Browse link on the menu on the left of the screen will do a search that will return every item in the database. Click on a thumbnail to see more information about an image.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions are a selection of images that have been grouped together on particular themes or to show highlights of the collections. Click on Exhibitions on the menu to the left of the screen to view the choice.

An exhibition is represented initially by a thumbnail image and a title with a short introduction.

To view the full details of an exhibition, click on the thumbnail. This links to a page giving more information about the exhibition. To view a gallery containing all the items in the exhibition, click on the View link under related items at the bottom of the page.

Previous Searches

The Previous Searches page records a history of all the searches you have performed, in order. To view the list of Previous Searches, simply click on the link from the menu on the left of the screen.

This function is session based; closing the Browser will clear the previous search history.

Selections

Beside each image except for the larger image is a checkbox. Click in this box to change the status of the image to Selected. A tick will show in the checkbox. The image will be automatically placed into the Selections page. The Gallery of selected images can be viewed at any time by clicking on the Selections link on the menu on the left of the screen.

To remove the item from the Selections simply click the checkbox to remove the tick. Once the page is refreshed the item will no longer appear in the Selections.

Using Clear All Selections will remove the tick from all the selected items.

Search Results

Gallery

Thumb View

Results of searches are shown in the form of a Thumbnail Image Gallery. By default the Gallery displays twelve thumbnails. This however can be changed by entering the desired number into the Display field and refreshing the page.

To move between Gallery pages use the Back and Forward arrow buttons or enter the required page number in the page field and press enter.

The Gallery page includes a crumb trail, this displays the type of search used to generate the current Gallery.

To add an item to Selections, click on the checkbox next to the image, a tick will be shown in the box. Clicking it again will remove it from the selection.

To find out more information about an image, click on the thumbnail to access the Item Record Page.

To refine a search(can there be a link to combining subject search by searching with other fields from the Gallery click on Refine Search . The Advanced Search screen will allow you to narrow the search results from this gallery of images.

List View

To find out more information about an image before looking at the Item Record Page look at the Gallery in List View by changing the option on the top right of the screen from Thumb View to List View. This will reduce the number of thumbnails you can view but will provide more information about each image.

Item Record Page

The Item Record Page displays the image and information about the image, including:

Artist

This will be the full name of the artist if known. Only one artist can be displayed in this field. When the image has been created by more than one artist the name not displayed in the artist field will be included in the description of the image.

Title

In most cases this is taken from the original item.

Description

This is a description of the content of each image.

Type

Type can refer to the use of an image eg postcard or the medium of the original eg photograph.

Date

The date is the date the original item was created not the date of the content.

More Information

This gives additional information about the place, person or activity featured in an image.

Image

It is possible to select the image (can a link be made to Selections help) as well as view a Larger Image, and e-mail a link to this image.

Crumb Trail

The Item Record Page includes a crumb trail, this displays the type of search used to generate the current set of results and allows you to link back to the Gallery containing the current item.

Move between Item Record Pages by either using the Back and Forward arrow buttons or enter the required page number in the Page field and press enter.

Larger Image Page

The Larger Image Page displays a larger, high resolution copy of the current item.