Brief guide to searching

For help using our catalogue, please see our Using the Catalogue Video and the guidance below.

Simple search

The simple search is accessed via the “Google-style” search box in the top right hand corner of the CalmView home page. The simple search will search across the Title and Description fields in the Catalogue. Where more than one term is entered, the search will automatically retrieve records which contain both terms. These terms may not always appear next to each other in the text. If you want to search for an exact phrase (so the words appear adjacent to each other in the text), e.g. Rudolf Laban, enter the text with double quotation marks, thus "Rudolf Laban".

Advanced search

To undertake an advanced search, click on the 'Advanced Search' button on the top bar. The drop down menu of the Advanced Search allows you to search either the whole catalogue or to search the databases of names of people, dance companies and other organisations. To search the catalogue, click on 'Catalogue' in the Advanced Search drop down menu or to search the database of persons and organisations, click on ‘Persons’.The advanced search enables you to perform more precise searches and to choose which fields to search in.

In the advanced search you are able to search in the following fields:

• Any Text – any combination of text can be entered here
• Reference Number/Code – enter full archive collection references or codes e.g. NM for the entire Natural Movement Archive or US for the entire University of Surrey institutional archive
• Title – enter title of item here to search title field only
• Description – enter text here to search item description only
• Date(s) – limit your search to a particular year or period e.g. 1897, 1910-1950, or 20th century)
• Level - As well as detailed descriptions of individual documents, the online catalogue includes descriptions of the entire collections. Archives are arranged into collections and then sub-divided as needed into 'series', ‘sub-series’, ‘file’ and 'item'. Please see the glossary for further information about these archival terms. This field has a drop down picklist to allow you to select one of the available terms used in the catalogue database

Refine advanced search criteria

By default, a search will look for the word or words you have entered. However you can choose to change the default search criteria by clicking the “Refine Search Criteria” option on the Any Text, Title and Description fields. There are three ways to refine the search option:

With all the words

With at least one of the words

Without the words

Please note that the search term(s) may not appear in the text displayed in the hit list; if this is the case, the search term(s) will appear in the more detailed catalogue descriptions which can be viewed by clicking on the RefNo.