Help with Archives Online

All Fields Options

Collections include records from Indiana University repositories. You can search across all collections (finding aids) or search within an individual collection. The All Fields drop-down menu for Archives Online searching allows users to narrow their search even further.

• You can search by Keyword to find a specific word or phrase represented anywhere in a collection's finding aid.
• You can search by Name to find a specific person's name represented in a collection's finding aid.
• You can search by Place to find a specific locations represented in a collection's finding aid.
• Each collection has been assigned a number of subjects to describe the materials in the collection. A Subject search is similar to a keyword search, but instead of searching through the entire finding aid you are searching the assigned subjects of each collection.
• You can search by Title to find a specific collection in Archives Online. 

Advanced Searching

Shout Your Boolean

To optimize your search, you can use Boolean operators in the search bar. Boolean operators are simple words (AND and NOT) used as conjunctions to combine or exclude keywords in a search. Doing so results in more focused and productive results. Using Boolean operators should save time and effort by eliminating inappropriate hits. Please note that Boolean operators must be entered in ALL CAPS to be recognized by the system - shout your Boolean!

AND—Both terms must be represented in a collection. If one term is contained in the document and the other is not, the item is not included in the resulting list. You would use AND if you are trying to narrow your search.
Example: A keyword search for love AND baseball will only return collections that represent both terms. A collection that includes the term "love" but not the term "baseball" will not be included in the resulting list. 

OR—Either term must be represented in a collection. If one term or another is contained in a document, the item will be included in the results list. You would use OR if you're trying to expand your search.
Example: A keyword search for love OR baseball will return collections that represent one or both of the terms. A collection that includes the term "love" but not the term "baseball" will be included in the resulting list. The same is true if a collection includes the "baseball" but not the term "love."

NOT—the first term is searched, then any records containing the term after the operators are subtracted from the results. You would use NOT if you're trying to limit your search.
Example: A place search for love NOT baseball would exclude all hits for "love" that also included "baseball." 

Exact Phrase and Wildcard Searching

Helpful hints: Use quotation marks around search terms greater than one word. When you surround your search terms with quotation marks, you are telling the database that the words must appear as an exact phrase. Otherwise, each word in your search term will be searched separately, broadening your search.
Example: Indiana University yields more results than "Indiana University" in quotation marks because in the first search, Archives Online is looking for every collection that contains "Indiana" AND "University" AND "Indiana University."

You can use wildcards (?, *) for searching as well.
Examples: base* returns results with "bases" or "based" or "baseball." wom?n returns results with "woman" or "women."

Searching by Repository

Begin with any search in the search bar at the top of the page. Once on the results list, click on the "Repository" facet on the left hand side of the screen. Click on the repository you want to search within. The results list will now exclude hits from all repositories besides the one you selected.

Example: The results list from a keyword search for love AND baseball faceted by Lilly Library will only include Lilly Library collections that contain the terms "love" and "baseball."