Help Section

Search Tips

Basic Searches

Images can be located by doing basic searches on the following fields: Title, Creator, or Decade.

Step 1. Start by typing a name or term, or the beginning part of a name or term, and select "List."

Step 2. All terms meeting that criteria are displayed.

A search in the Creator field for "Har," for example, will display a list with the names "Harrill, L. R." and ""Harris, John H."

Step 3. Select the appropriate term from the list and select "Search." All relevant images will be displayed.

Intermediate Searches

An intermediate search can also be performed. The left-hand side search menu can be expanded by selecting Data Fields, showing the user more search options. Under this expanded menu, searches can be done on a number of fields:

Date—if searching for an item with a known exact date;
Decade—if searching for an item within a 10-year span;
Geographic Location—if searching for an item with a known location;
Subject; and
Keyword.

The Keyword seach is free-text, meaning the user can enter search terms freely. If searching on Date, Decade, Geographic Location, or Subject, the user can view a list of descriptive terms that have already been assigned to the images. (This list of pre-selected terms is known as a controlled vocabulary.)

Step 1. Select Data Fields from the basic search menu on the left to see other search options.

Step 2. Select the field to be searched, for instance, the Subject field.

Step 3. Select "equals." Doing this displays the list of the terms that have been used to describe the images.

Step 4. Choose the desired term and then either select "search" to display the images or perform an advanced search by selecting "and" or "or."

Advanced Searches

Step 1. Select Data Fields from the basic search menu on the left to see other search options.

Step 2. Perform a search as described above. At this point, the search can be broadened (see Step 3a) or made more narrow (see Step 3b).

Step 3a. Select "or" (the "or operator") and repeat the search process.

This will broaden the search and display more results. The "or" adds search terms together and diplays images that meet one or more of the search requirements. For instance, a search on "Gardens" or "Cows" displays images that include either gardens or cows, or possibly both. The set of images that are displayed will be greater than that retrieved by a search on only "Gardens."

Step 3b. Select "and" (the "and operator") and repeat the search process.

This will narrow the search and return fewer but more precise results. A narrow search is useful if you are looking for very specific images, like a photograph of children in Guilford County, North Carolina. A search on only "Children" will return a greater number of images than a search on "Children" and "Guilford County, North Carolina," but if you are only interested in images of children in Guilford County, you would get more images than what is needed.