help
- What is searched?
- Collection Summaries
- Quick Search: how do I start?
- Quick Search: choosing a category
- Advanced Search: choosing a database
- What does the Advanced Search do?
- Viewing an entire archive collection
- Project Newsletters
- Internet browser compatibility
What does Black Country History search?
Black Country History searches the computerised catalogues of the four Black Country record offices and the four Black Country arts and museum services simultaneously, displaying search results on one web page. Black Country History does not search all of the records held by each service but only what is currently available as online catalogue records. However, these records are being added to all the time so it is always worth checking back at a later date.
Collection Summaries
The Collection Summary page provides a list of the main collections in each of the catalogues of the eight partners and may help with your search. For the archive services, the summary lists give the main ‘Ref No’ collection for each collection and covering dates. You can use this information in an Advanced Search.
Quick Search: how do I start?
You can start by typing a word or phrase into the Quick Search box. This will search the records of the four Black Country archive services and the four Black Country arts and museums services either the archives and local history catalogues, the arts and museum catalogues or the images catalogues. If your search term contains more than one word (e.g. Dudley Castle) put the phrase in quotation marks (e.g. "Dudley Castle") so that only records containing both of these words are displayed.
If you see the words 'No Records Found', this means that there are no records matching your search term. This does not necessarily mean that records on your chosen subject are unavailable, but you might have to think about using a different search word or phrase. This is where the Advanced Search facility can be useful.
Quick Search: choosing a category
Within the Quick Search function, you have the option of refining your search. After entering your search term, you can choose whether to search all records (i.e. all of the archive and local studies material from each record office plus all arts and museums objects), archive records, arts and museum objects or just images (i.e. only the photographs from each service). The latter option is particularly useful if you just want to look for photographs.
If you want to refine your search further, select the Advanced Search option.
Advanced Search: Choosing a database
There are two Advanced search options on the same page – one to search the collections and one to search just for Images.
The Collections option, which appears first, searches the document collections and the local studies libraries of the four archive services and the object collections of the four museum services. You can search any combination, or all archives, or all museums or all collections at once. The archive collections contain some illustrations, though the majority will have only a catalogue description, not a thumbnail of the illustration.
Illustrations will often have thumbnail images attached to the catalogue information.
What does the Advanced Search do?
The Advanced Search fields allows you to refine your search by focusing your search terms on particular fields.
Searching within specific fields
The Advanced Search allows you to choose the title, description, author, archive
reference number, class reference number, date, artist, brief description,
maker, object name and subject of a particular record.
For archive records, 'Title' refers to the name of the record, for museum records 'Title' refers to the title of an artwork or a book. This is different from a keyword search so you should type in the exact title.
'Description' is an account of the content of an archive record. For museum
records the field 'Brief Description' is used instead of 'Description'.
'Author' relates to the author of a book.
'Archive reference number' relates to the unique number assigned to archive collections. 'Class' refers to the reference number given to local studies material such as books and publications. 'Date' specifies the date in which the item was created - for example, the publication date of a book.
'Artist' and 'Maker' refers to the person or company responsible for creating a museum object. 'Object Name' refers to the name of a museum object, for example painting, vase, fossil.
‘Subject’ links to the subject terms in the archives, local studies, illustrations and museums catalogues.
Choosing 'And' or 'Or'
This is known as Boolean searching. It allows you to extend or narrow your
searches.
'And' allows you to search for records that contain two or more words that you specify. For example, searching for 'Dudley' and 'Castle' will only find records in which both words occur. Records with just the word 'Dudley' or 'Castle' will be excluded.
'Or' allows you to search for records which contain any of the words you specify. For example, searching for 'Dudley' or 'Castle' will find records that contain either or both of these words.
Viewing an entire archive collection
When you view an individual record, it sometimes forms part of a larger collection. To view the whole collection, click on the link which says: This record is part of a collection. Click here to view the record and its place within the collection (opens new window). A popup window will show the record view, and by clicking on the reference number which is highlighted in blue, you will be able to view the entire archive collection.
Project Newsletters
There were nineteen Project Newsletters produced by Documenting the Workshop of the World project which created the Black Country History web site. These include news and historical information on some of the collections whose catalogues are included on the site. The newsletters are available as PDFs together with a short description of relevant contents
Internet browser compatibility
This site is best viewed using Internet Explorer Version 5.5 or above.
