The options along the top of the screen allow you to browse repositories, resources, digital objects, subjects or names.
Browsing resources (or 'top level' descriptions) on ArchiveSearch.
Lists of subjects or names used as keywords (or index terms) include links to catalogues.
Subject or names used as keywords are usually used to denote substantial information about a person, organisation, subject or place.
Browsing (or searching) for subjects and/or names on ArchiveSearch can help eliminate records which only refer to the subject or name in passing.
Subject terms can link records which contain information about the same subject but which do not all refer to it in exactly the same way. For instance, descriptions mentioning "votes for women" or "suffragettes" can all be retrieved using the keyword "womens suffrage".
Subject terms also link records relating to different aspects of a general theme- material relating to railways and roads can all be retrieved using the keyword "transport".
Names used as keywords identify individuals with precision and can be useful to find records relating to a specific person.
If you are not sure about the form of a name (especially people who had more than one name or title) use the ‘Filter results’ box to enter in the part (for instance the surname or the main part of a title) that you are sure about.
To browse the archive organisations (repositories) that have information on ArchiveSearch.
Contact details and information about the repository and its collections are available.
Use 'What’s in this Repository?' as a quick link to materials in the repository.
Use ‘Search The Archives’ to find material held in that repository.
To browse catalogue information about all the collections held on ArchiveSearch.
The list can be sorted by title or year.
The list can be filtered using the box on the right hand side of the screen: add search terms or a date range or select the filter headers below the search box to limit to particular repositories, subjects or names.
To browse information about digital records.
Digital records may include images of, or links to, digitised archives or digital files.