Searching the archive with keywords

All search inputs within The Social History Archive platform fall into two main pathways: the keywords field (for general text search, phrase syntax, exclusions, and prioritisation) and the names field (specifically tuned for historical personal name variations).

Every option in the advanced search form is fully interoperable with typed keyboard syntax. Any query you construct in the advanced search form will render as syntax in the primary search bar, and valid syntax typed directly into the search bar will automatically populate the corresponding fields if advanced search is opened.

Keywords

The keywords field is the main field for entering (and managing) all keywords and phrases you want to be a factor in your search. The only exception is people’s names – which can be entered in the names field for more reliable and accurate results.

The keywords field can take any number of words and phrases. Words or phrases can be executed as:

• Must include – must be in the result

• Must exclude – must not be in the result

• Prioritise within – words/phrases which are not required, but results that contain them will be brought to the top (when results are sorted by relevance)

The different keywords field in the advanced search form and the keywords box on the search results page are fully interoperable – all structure from the advanced form can (and will) be represented in syntax, and any syntax written into the keywords field will be interpreted into the relevant fields in the advanced search form.

By default, all words in the keywords field (either single words, or words in phrases) are matched in the archive on a stemmed basis (e.g. fish, fishes and fisher all share the same stem – ‘fish’ – and all words with that stem will match). By and large, we would recommend sticking with this default on matching stemmed words as it produces far more comprehensive and reliable results. If you turn on exact keyword search, then all words in the keyword field (single and in phrases) will only be matched on an exact basis (i.e. ‘fishes’ will only match ‘fishes’). This will substantially reduce the number of matching results, and some highly relevant results may be left out.

It is important to emphasise that all of the powerful syntax available via the advanced search form can be typed directly into the keywords field. Multiple phrases, varying phrase flex, exclusions and prioritisation can all be typed directly into the keywords field.