Word combinations |
Phrases |
Fields |
Characters and accents |
Hints |
Comments and questions
How to Search
The search system is very simple to use. Just follow these steps:
- Click "Search" at the top of this or any other web page on this site to get
to the main search page.
- If a "Select Index" option appears then you may choose one index to search, or you
can choose to search all the indices listed.
- Enter one or more words or part words in the search text box.
Case is not significant in the search, so you may use upper or lower case.
- Click the "Do the Search" button.
From the chosen index (or indices) the search will select records that contain
all the requested words in any order in any field of the record. The search
will match the entered words against whole words or part words so, for example,
a search for men will match any sequence of those 3 characters
including words such as "men", "women", "ferment", and "mental".
The matched words will be highlighted in red wherever
they occur in the records displayed by the search.
The results will be displayed to you 10 records at a time. To see the next
page of records click the "Next" button at the top or the bottom of the page.
To return to a previous page of records click the "Previous" button.
Searching for combinations of words
If you search for a single word or part word then the results will include all
records containing that sequence of characters in any field of the record.
To search for records that contain all of a set of words just enter the words
in the search box. The search assumes a logical and operation between
separate words in the text to search for and will return all records that contain
all the specified words (or part words) in any field in any order.
For example, to search for records that mention both Dublin and Cork enter
dublin cork or cork dublin in the search box.
The search system does not support logical or operations. In other
words it is not possible to look for records containing one word or
another word. To get the same effect you should perform separate searches
for each of the words.
Searching for phrases
The search system does not support searching for specific phrases. However, a
similar effect can be obtained by searching for all the words of the phrase.
Type the phrase into the search box (without quotes or any special characters)
and click the "Do the Search" button. The search will find all records that
contain all the words of the phrase, but not necessarily together as a single
phrase. This means that the search result will include all records that contain
the words as a complete phrase, but the result will also include records that
contain all the words of the phrase separately or together anywhere in the
record.
For example, entering national archives of ireland in the
search text box will return all records that contain the four words "national",
"archives", "of", and "ireland" anywhere in the record. This will include
records that contain the complete phrase "national archives of ireland" but
it will also include other records that contain those four words separately.
Restricting the search to one field
The records of an index are divided into fields or columns. It is not possible
to restrict the search to particular fields of an index. All searches are
carried out by examining all fields of all records in the chosen index or indices.
Special characters and accents in the search words
The character . (dot) may be used in a search term to match any single character.
For example, searching for fa.e will return all records that
contain words such as "fade", "face", "fake", "fame", "fare", "fate", "welfare"
and
"profane". Searching for the single character . (a single dot)
will return all the records contained in the index or indices because the dot
will match any character and therefore it will be matched in every record.
Accents have been omitted in this version of the Directory. This means that
you if you search for words using accented characters where they would normally
be expected your search will fail. When searching for words that are usually
spelt with accented characters just use unaccented characters instead. For
example, if you want to find all records referring to Dáil Eireann then
enter dail eireann. Entering dáil eireann
will not find any matching records.
The characters " (double quote) and ' (single quote) are not treated specially.
They do not cause a set of words to be treated as a phrase, and will be searched
for as normal characters.
In this version of the search software some special characters may cause
problems to the search operation and should not be entered into the
search box. These characters to be avoided include:
- $ (dollar)
- ^ (caret)
- \ (back slash)
- * (asterisk)
- + (plus sign)
Hints for more effective searching
A number of techniques can be used to ensure that you find all records in the
Directory which are relevant to your area of interest. The objective is to
ensure that all relevant records are retrieved, while not obscuring them by
also retrieving many irrelevant records.
- Before starting your search give a moment's thought to identifying words
(or part words) that are likely to be unique to the information in which you are
interested.
- On your initial searches do not be too specific in your search terms.
Give just enough of the word to make it unlikely to match parts of other words.
- Omit word endings to ensure that all variants of a word will be matched.
For example, search for hospital rather than the more specific
hospitals or hospitalisation.
- Omit parts of a word that are likely to have a number of spelling variations.
For example, search for valera rather than devalera
or de valera.
- Omit accents. The Directory does not include accents that might normally
be expected (see above).
- If your initial searches provide too many records, introduce more
words into the search terms in order to prevent irrelevant records matching
your search.
- When you find one record which is relevant, use it to identify further
words which might be unique to other relevant records.
- When you find a record of interest keep a note of the search terms you used
to find it. It is very common and very frustrating to be unable to get back
to a record which you found previously.
Comments or questions
If you have comments or questions relating to the Directory please contact
the Women's History Project by email to
whp@indigo.ie.
