Guide to Advanced Search

This is a quick guide to using the Advanced Search feature on GW’s pilot website for museum and university collections. Topics include:

  1. Advanced Searching Basics
  2. How to Clear an Advanced Search
  3. How to Limit an Advanced Search to a Specific Collection
  4. How to Search for a Date Range
  5. How to Search the Geography Field
  6. How to Quickly Find Terms in the Culture and Style Dropdowns
  7. What is the Difference Between Med. / Support and Materials?
  8. What is Structure?

1. BASIC ADVANCED SEARCHING

Visit www.go.gwu.edu/collections and click on “Browse the Collections” in the top-right

corner of the page, followed by “Advanced search.”

Detail of collections website showing where advance search option is located

 

When you click on “Advanced Search,” the Advanced Search pop-out will appear.

Advanced Search pop-out window

In the Advanced Search pop-out, Fulltext allows you to search for one or multiple terms anywhere in an object record. Total Hits, in the upper right, indicates the number of works matching your search criteria; this number will update as you build your search. Use the different Search Criteria fields to build your search.

You may use the operator dropdowns (middle column) to further customize your search. There are many operators to choose from, but the most useful operators are:

  • Contains             =           partial or exact term or phrase
  • Equals                 =           an exact term or phrase
  • Begins with         =           partial name, term or phrase that appears at the very beginning of the field
  • Ends with            =           partial term or phrase that appears at the very end of the field
  • Between (incl.)    =        information range, such as a date range
  • Greater than or equal to   =   greater than or equal to a specific date, term or phrase
  • Less than or equal to         =   less than or equal to a specific date, term or phrase
  • Not contains       =           omit a partial or exact term or phrase
  • Not equal           =           omit an exact term or phrase

2. HOW TO CLEAR AN ADVANCED SEARCH

At the top of the page, place your cursor over the grey dropdown. A circlular “x” icon will appear on the right side of the dropdown. Click the “x” to clear the search.

Detail of pop out showing how to clear an advanced search

3. HOW TO LIMIT AN ADVANCED SEARCH TO A SPECIFIC COLLECTION

In the Collection field, located at the very bottom of the advanced search pop-out, enter the name of the collection or a unique part of the collection's name (e.g., "Textile Museum," "Cotsen," "Washingtoniana," "GW", or "Corcoran").

Detail showing where to select which collection you would like to search

4. HOW TO SEARCH FOR A DATE RANGE

Click on the dropdown to the right of the Date field. Change the operator dropdown from “Contains” to "Between (incl.)."

Detail showing where to find date limit terms in dropdown menu

Once "Between (incl.)" has been selected, a second field will appear. Enter the date range in the two fields. For BCE dates, add “BCE” the end of each applicable date.

Detail showing where to put date limits in search

5. HOW TO SEARCH GEOGRAPHY

Geography allows you to search for works associated with a geographic location, such as a continent, country, city, geographic region, etc.

This field works best when only one (1) location is entered instead of multiple locations (e.g. “Paris” instead of “Paris France”).

Detail of Advanced Search pop-out showing where to limit geography in search

 

Multiple geographic locations may be entered, but they must be entered from largest to smallest. Do not add commas.

Detail showing how to search for multiple geographic terms

6. HOW TO QUICKLY FIND TERMS IN THE CULTURE AND STYLE DROPDOWNS

To quickly find a term, click on a blank part of the “Criteria 1” field and type the term into the field. As you type, the list will become smaller.

Detail of Advanced Search pop-out showing how to find terms in the culture and style dropdowns

Currently the Style field is primarily used by The Textile Museum Collection and the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection.

7. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "MED./SUPPORT" AND "MATERIALS?"

Med. / Support is for searching works in Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection, GW Collection and Corcoran Study Collection. Materials is for The Textile Museum Collection and the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection.

Using both fields is not recommended.

Please use the Object Class field to search for work by broad classification (e.g., Painting, Textile, Sculpture and Installation, Print, etc.).

8. WHAT IS STRUCTURE?

Structure is for searching textile structures and is not applicable to works in the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection, GW Collection or Corcoran Study Collection.
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