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Basic Searching
The basic search allows for searching by a single word or phrase within the text of index entries. If you type more than one word, the system will only match on the phrase as a whole rather than separating the words.
For example, a search for "status of women" will find index entries that contain the exact phrase "status of women" but will not find
"status of Indiana women". Similarly, a search for the name "Crispus Attucks" will not find incidences of "Attucks, Crispus".
The advanced search is useful for finding personal names.
For Basic and Advanced Searching
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Searches can be restricted to the author or title field, and to individual years.
All available years of the index and all fields are searched by default.
- The search engine is not case-sensitive. For instance, "lincoln", "LINCOLN", and "Lincoln" will match "Lincoln."
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Searches match on whole and partial words.
For instance, "view" will match
"view", "views", "overview", and "viewpoint".
Advanced Search
The advanced search will search each word or phrase separately. Select "AND", "OR", or
"NOT" from the menu of Boolean operators to refine your search. "AND" is the default.
Use "OR" to broaden your searches. For example, search for "War" OR "infantry" if you want to find index entries that contain either term or both terms.
Use "AND" to narrow your searches. Search for "War" AND "infantry"
if you want to find index entries that must contain both terms.
Use "NOT" to eliminate terms from your searches. Search for "Sherman" AND "Civil War" NOT "infantry" if you want to find entries that contain "Sherman" and "Civil War", but not "infantry."
You may want to search for names such as "James Reed" as "James" AND "Reed", because the name may appear as "James Reed" or "Reed, James" throughout the index.
Understanding Search Results
Search results are returned as a list of index entries, sorted by year and alphabetized by the main entry term. Search terms appear in bold blue text, and may appear anywhere within the text of the index entry.
The main index entry can be a name, author name, title, place, or subject. For each result, you will see the main index entry, with its associated page number(s), volume number and date.
Some entries contain descriptive information and sub-entries, and can be quite long.
For example, the following index entry is the result of a title field search for "Civil War", restricted to the year 2000.
Volume: XCVI (2000)
- Armstrong, Warren B., For Courageous
Fighting and Confident Dying: Union Chaplains in the Civil War, revd,
92-94. XCVI (2000).
The main index entry is the author name "Armstrong, Warren B.", and the search term "Civil War" appears in bold blue text within the the article title. The information following the title indicates that a review ("revd") of Armstrong's work appears on pages 92 to 94 of Volume XCVI, year 2000 of the Magazine of Indiana History.
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