In this video, I'm going to demonstrate how to use ArchiveSearch.

Archive Search is an archive catalogue and it contains hundreds and thousands of descriptions of archives that are held in 33 different archive repositories, or archive organizations, across the city of Cambridge. The site lets you search and browse information about the archives held in Cambridge; search and browse digital archive materials and find out information about where archives are held and who you can contact to find out more.

There is a user guide, a LibGuide, which gives more information about using the site. than I'll be covering in this video You can access the LibGuide by clicking on the orange HELP button towards the bottom of the homepage or using the link in the footer of every page to the archive. "ArchiveSearch LibGuide".
I'll start by showing you the options that are available from the homepage of ArchiveSearch. The simplest thing to start a search is to enter a term into the search box that you can see on the home screen here. So I could enter a search for astronomy and by clicking on the blue search button I could kick off a search. I can see that that brings me quite a lot of results -well over 1000, So I'll return to the home screen and show you how I can refine this search from the home screen itself. So moving across from the search box, there's the option to limit a search to particular types of material. So I might decide to limit the search to digital materials.

Then moving across to the next pull-down menu, there's the option to limit my search to particular fields in the catalogue, particular particular data elements, or I can add in a date range, so I might want to choose 1700 to 1799.

Those are some of the ways I can build up a search. I can also add an additional search row by clicking the plus icon to the right of the search box. I might want to add an additional search term so I might want to say I would like to search for astronomy and Newton. So I could start the search there, but you'll see I've also got the option to decide that I want to find the term astronomy and not Newton. So there are various different ways available on the home screen to build up a search. But I will get rid of these additional search terms and go back to my original search to demonstrate how it works straight from the start (searchbox).

I will set my search to find all record types because-at least to start with- it's a good idea to do a broad search and then you can limit it once you see how many results you get. So I'll do this search [for astronomy] again. Because there are over 1000 results I'll just take you through what we can see on the search results screen here. Working from the left hand side you can see that in the left hand pane. The first 4 results retrieved are visible on the left hand side with a little bit of information about each one. So if I take the top one we can see that in the left hand column there's a little icon. It shows a box and it says that this is a 'fonds' description. So the icon in the left column will tell you something about the type of record that you found in archive search. So 'fonds' is a term that archivists use to describe the top level of a collection So we know that this is a whole collection description. If you want to know more about the terms that you might see on ArchiveSearch, please have a look at the LibGuide that I talked to you about at the start of the video because we have a full Glossary on the Lib Guide which explains what all of the terms you might come across mean.

So we've got our 'fonds' description. Then we've got the title, in blue which is a clickable link that I can follow and have a look at this collection. I've got a reference code, -that's always going to be a sequence of letters and numbers, and it's the unique identifier for this collection. It's really important to keep a note of the unique identifier [of the material you are interested in] if you want to contact a repository or make an appointment to go and visit it. Then I've got a scope and content note: so this is a narrative description and it will usually tell me something about the activities or the functions that have created this archival material.

Then I've got covering dates. I can see that this is 1924 to 1988, and then there's a statement of the conditions governing access. It's definitely worth keeping an eye on the conditions governing access because we've got a very wide range of repositories that publish their catalogues on this site and they vary a lot in size. Some of them, like our first one here, Churchill Archives Centre and the Cambridge University Library, are large repositories, and they have quite long opening hours, but some of the repositories are much smaller. They might be staffed by one person working part time, and they may only be open for some days of the week. So it's worth keeping an eye on the access conditions so that you are aware of any limits that there might be to when you can go and see the material or how you can get an appointment to go and see it.

So I can see that this collection is held at Churchill Archive Centre and again what the title is. So that's the information available in the left hand pane. But if I go over to the right hand pane, firstly you'll see that I can adjust the order of my results. By default they are displayed by relevance. But I could Sort them by date/ by year, and that has a big effect on the list. It brings back a lot more records that are describing people instead of collections, so we can see that the icon on the left hand side is showing me that I've got people records. I'll go back to [sorting the list by] relevance for now. And just give the system a chance to re-sort them.

Now you can see on the furthest right hand side. I've got the option to filter my results so I can add particular terms. So if I add the term University and click search here, what's happening is that I'm filtering my set of results so I'm reducing the number of hits that I've got. It is very easy to get rid of a filter. I can click the box, the cross, next to the filter and get rid of the filter. You'll see that my set of results has gone right back up to the original number.

I can add a date range here. So let's see what happens if I put 1700 to 1799. That brings the hits down to 127 records, It [the list of search results] is getting more manageable all the time and there are other filters that I can add. You can see that ArchiveSearch is giving me some clues about what's going to happen if I click any of these filters because they've got a number of hits next to each filter. The first filter is the repository, where the records are held, 126 of these are held University library and then the next filter is the Archon code. This [the ARCHON code] is a filter specifically for Cambridge University Library material. There's an awful lot of material on this system for the University library, and these ARCHON code filters allow you to filter by the Department or collection. It's one of the ways that this system makes working with a set of results a little bit more manageable for you. I can also choose the type of record retrieved. Archival objects are lower level records, so they're more detailed records usually. Then resource records are top level descriptions, so they're going to be whole collections.

And then we've got particular subjects: so I I click on longitude I can see that that's going to give me 34 results, so let's have a look at those. So that's filtered the list right down to 34 results, so it [the list of search results] is getting more and more manageable all the time. Now I'm going to dive into one of these results and show you what you see when you look at a particular record on ArchiveSearch and how you can understand enough about the context of the record that you found. So I'll go for the first one (hit) in the list. So you can see that up at the top left of the screen I've got the title of this file. So it's called petitions and memorials. I've got the date range 1782 to 1828 and the reference code, so again that's what I need if I want to find out more. Underneath the reference code is a breadcrumb trail, and this shows me that this collection is held at the University library. The collection is the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archive collection and then within that I'm in the papers of the Board of Longitude and then the file is petitions and memorials, so at any stage I can jump back up the hierarchy so I'll go back to the parent record to have a look at the whole collection for a moment.

So there are two views for each collection on ArchiveSearch. The first one, the collection overview, is what we see on the left hand pane of our screen, so I'll take you through that first of all. So firstly, we've got a scope and content note, so again, this is a narrative summary about this collection. As I'm looking at a very big collection now, I'm imagining that [the scope and content note] is going to be quite a long record. If I expand it by clicking see more, that will give me a lot more context. The covering dates are very long here- 1675 to 2019. Created by the Royal Greenwich Observatory again. The conditions governing access- I can see I need to visit Cambridge University Library to see this.

And then I've got a biographical or historical note. So let's have a look at that. So that will be, in this case, some background about the organization that's created these records. If it was a person, this would be a biographical summary. Then I've got information about the extent so because I'm at the top of the collection, I can see that this is quite big -1200 linear meters. That's definitely an awful lot more than I would want to go and visit an archive repository to see. So, like the conditions of governing access, it's really worth keeping an eye on how much what the physical extent of the material you're looking at is. This will give you much better idea of how long it might take to have a look at it and work your way through it.

Then we've got the languages. And then additional description. So in this case I've got information about where the collection came from, and other finding aids. And then finally I've got links to subjects and the Creator and then a little summary of the repository details. Again, a link to their website and all the contact information I might need to take this further. So that's what ArchiveSearch displays in its collection overview pane.

And then in the right hand side here we've got the collection organization, which is the 2nd tab in our list and I'll just confirm that in this case there isn't a container inventory, but that's fine. I can find all the information I need using the collection organization tab, so the collection organization pane here [on the right of the screen], this is the way that I can understand the hierarchy of this collection. And I can burrow down in the collection and find out more details. If I open up the first section, the papers of John Flamsteed, each of the arrows will open up and let me select subsections so I can keep expanding [the heirarchy] and drilling right down. So if I'm interested in this particular material and I click on it, you'll see that the collection pane on the left has updated now, and I've got information about this file. I can see that in the top left hand corner this is just one file of material. It's in fact it's one volume, so that would be a more manageable thing for me to come and have a look at. It would certainly be smaller!

That's how to burrow down in a hierarchy and get into more detail in a collection. And once you've got a specific reference or references like this [GBR/0180/RGO 1/26/E], ArchiveSearch helps you take the next steps, Probably the first step will be to contact the repository. You can see that on the top right hand side of the screen there's a contact us button. When you click that, that will open your email software and it will fill in an email with the To: details already completed with the email address of the repository and with the subject line of the email filled in with the reference code of this material. Citing the reference code when you're in correspondence with the repository is going to be the simplest way of making sure that it's clear which material and which collection you're interested in. There's also a citation button, so if I click that, that will generate a citation that I can copy to my clipboard and paste into my work if I'm referencing it [the archival material] and finally a print button which will create a PDF for me that I can either save, or print. That's a way of keeping a record of what you've been looking at if you would like to [have one].

So I've finished showing you how to search, ArchiveSearch, and I'm going to conclude by taking you through the options to browse through ArchiveSearch. You can use the options that are below our title bar to browse the collections. So the first option is to browse by repository. Repositories are the archive organisations that hold the material. So I'll go for the third one, the Archive Centre at King's College in Cambridge, and by clicking on that you'll see that I get a little summary about this archive. A link to its home page description of its collections, and when it's open, how I might get access. Contact details to take it further. And then it says what's in this repository? There are 89 resources, so if I click on those that shows me the collections that are held at King's Archive Centre and I can browse through these or I can decide to filter them on the right hand side as I showed you with the search results, I can add extra terms and add date ranges and so on. So that's the first browse option, the repositories option. The second one is the resource option, Resource is- in ArchiveSearch terms- our top level descriptions. There are collections and this is going to bring up an alphabetical list of the collection, sorted at the moment by title. But I can again- just as I was able to do before- I could decide that I was going to sort this list by date instead of by title, or I could add filters on the right hand side. So that's browsing by resources.

Then I could browse by digital objects, browse the digital objects on the system. So at the moment there's a lot of digital objects on this system which describe the papers of Charles Darwin. There will be more digital objects as time goes by. I can see that these [records] have got quite abbreviated titles and the reference codes include MS DAR, which is the Darwin Collection reference code. So I'll just scroll down and have a look at one of these digital objects. I like the look of this one: "A dog approaching another dog in a hostile spirit." When I click on that, I get a slightly different screen. I get a screen where I've got an image of a document which is very exciting. I've got a title again. I've got my reference code, if I want to take this further, I can see what the information is and I can see that this is a Cambridge University library collection. If I click on the digital object itself, on the image, I get taken to the Cambridge Digital Library, where I can see this document in the context of a volume that it's part of. So I can decide to browse through that volume from here. So I'll close this [window] for now and return to ArchiveSearch.

So that's how to browse by digital objects. Finally [browsing] subjects and names work in a very similar way. So if I click the list of subjects, you'll see that I get an alphabetical list of subjects and if I click on one- the abdication of Edward VIII, you'll see that that has found eleven collections or records for me, so that's a very quick way. If, there is a particular person or event or subject that you're interested in of going sort of straight into the collections that way. That concludes my tour of ArchiveSearch. I'll go back to the home page again and just finish with a reminder of the help button, which takes you to the ArchiveSearch LibGuide, which contains more information about this system and also point out that if you have any problems with it, there's a link in the bottom right hand side where you can send feedback to us or report a problem. Thank you very much.