Support
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How does British Online Archives implement full-text search?
When you perform a search, your query is applied across all four levels of a given resource: collection, volume, document and page. Once your search request has been performed, a relevance score calculates against each collection or document. This will determine the most relevant match for the query.
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Are there structured search options?
Yes. On the search results page, on the left-hand side you will find a list of filters that can be applied to refine your search. These range from particular keyword subjects and countries to specific collection titles.
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Is there an advanced search feature?
Yes. The advanced search page can be found here. For help on using advanced search, please refer to our advanced search guide and video walkthrough.
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Do you support operators when full-text searching?
Yes. We support various operators to help you refine and tailor your search to find the content you are looking for. A short-hand list of available operators can be found here.
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Can I perform a 'wildcard' search?
Yes. To perform a wildcard search, you simply need to an asterisk (*) directly after a stemmed word. For example, mis* would match 'mission', 'missile', 'miscellaneous' etc.
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How so I perform an exact search?
Also known as phrase matching, an exact search can be produced by wrapping a search query in speech/double quotation marks, for example "international conflict". Exact phrase matching does exactly that. We do not match any other search terms even if they are related.