Search Tips

Search by keyword or phrase using the search box at the top right area of every page.

• For an exact phrase search, enter words and/or phrases in quotes, e.g. "aerial view".
• Use "+" before a term to make it required, otherwise results matching only some of your terms may be included.
• To exclude a word or phrase, put a minus sign (-) before it.
• Use "OR", "AND", and "NOT" to create complex boolean logic, e.g. camp NOT matthews.
• Use parentheses in complex expressions.
• Searching is not case sensitive. For example, searching for "dancers solomon islands" or "DANCERS SOLOMON ISLANDS" will yield the same results.
• Very common words (a, and, the, do, of, etc.) are ignored in a search.

The Advanced Search option is available on the search results page. Advanced Search allows you to search within specific fields such as title or name/creator, or limit the search to a specific collection or format type.

• Supports limiting search to specific fields: title, name/creator, and notes.
• Supports searching full text (when available).
• Supports searching all collections or narrowing to a specific collection or multiple collections using check-boxes.

Other Tips

• Use the Limit your Search box on the left column of the search results page to narrow your search results by topic, collection, or format.
• Use the Sort by dropdown menu to change the order in which the search results display.
• If you are not sure what you are looking for, use the Browse by tab at the top of the page to browse by topic, collection, or format.
• For additional information, see Frequently Asked Questions