MA search guide
This site contains a powerful search tool that can be used to locate specific articles or information, or to browse general categories
SEARCHING THE MA WEBSITE
Results will come up on the Search Results page with the most relevant articles to your search criteria displayed first.
There are a number of ways to use the search function:
Example: You wish to find an article about a Specific Museum in London
Single word search - either 'specific', 'museum' or 'London'
Will find any articles containing the word entered
Note:
A word is any string of consecutive characters without a space, such as:
Museums
Museums-Association
Museum26
Museums.Association.website
M.GHJ-78987,
MA-HP-WP
Phrase search - must be enclosed in double quotation marks, e.g. "Specific Museum in London"
Will find any articles containing the entire phrase entered
Note:
A phrase is anything enclosed in double quotation marks, such as:
"Museums Association seminars"
"MA seminars in June"
"MA website, a useful resource"
"MA seminars 10.6.03"
Word and phrase search - e.g. exhibition AND "Specific Museum in London"
Will find any articles containing both the word and the phrase
Either/or words/phrases search - e.g. Exhibition OR display, "Specific Museum in London" OR "Specific Museums"
Will find any articles containing one or other of the words/phrases - or both
This and this, but not this! - You may want to exclude something related to your search criteria, but that is not relevant for you. To do this specify want you do want with an OR as above, and then what is to be excluded with an AND NOT. E.g. "Specific Museum in London" OR "Exhibitions in Specific Museum in London" AND NOT "exhibition X in Specific Museum in London."
This will find first two phrases and omit the last within the search
Special meaning keywords: OR, AND and NOT
Useful tools for refining a word/phrase search (see above).
OR - will find records containing A or B, or both
AND - will find records containing A and B
AND NOT - will exlude records containing C from search list A, B and not C
If you want to remove the special meaning of a key word and search for either OR or AND then you can:
- put the word in double quotation marks - e.g. "and" "or"
- put a backslash in front of it - e.g.. \and \or
The search engine will then include AND or OR in its search
SPECIAL CHARACTERS AND BACKSLASHES
Special characters, including double quotation marks, can be included in a word or phrase, represented by a backslash.
e.g. E=MC\
This tells the search engine to look for this word with a special character at the end (or at the beginning or in the middle, depending on where you position the backslash)
A literal backslash is represented by typing a double backslash
e.g. either\\or
WILDCARDS
If you are not certain of the spelling of a word then you can use wildcard characters to indicate unknown elements.
* - an asterisk represents any number of characters.
e.g. a search for bus* will bring up records with bus, business, busy, businesslike, busking and so on
? - a question mark represents one character.
e.g. a search for bus? Will bring up four letter words beginning with bus, such as bush, busy, bust and so on
[ ] - square brackets denote a character class. The search will look for any of the characters listed within the brackets
e.g. a search for b[aei]t will bring up records such as 'bat', 'bit', 'bet' and so forth.
Results will come up on the Search Results page with the most relevant articles to your search criteria displayed first.
There are a number of ways to use the search function:
Example: You wish to find an article about a Specific Museum in London
Single word search - either 'specific', 'museum' or 'London'
Will find any articles containing the word entered
Note:
A word is any string of consecutive characters without a space, such as:
Museums
Museums-Association
Museum26
Museums.Association.website
M.GHJ-78987,
MA-HP-WP
Phrase search - must be enclosed in double quotation marks, e.g. "Specific Museum in London"
Will find any articles containing the entire phrase entered
Note:
A phrase is anything enclosed in double quotation marks, such as:
"Museums Association seminars"
"MA seminars in June"
"MA website, a useful resource"
"MA seminars 10.6.03"
Word and phrase search - e.g. exhibition AND "Specific Museum in London"
Will find any articles containing both the word and the phrase
Either/or words/phrases search - e.g. Exhibition OR display, "Specific Museum in London" OR "Specific Museums"
Will find any articles containing one or other of the words/phrases - or both
This and this, but not this! - You may want to exclude something related to your search criteria, but that is not relevant for you. To do this specify want you do want with an OR as above, and then what is to be excluded with an AND NOT. E.g. "Specific Museum in London" OR "Exhibitions in Specific Museum in London" AND NOT "exhibition X in Specific Museum in London."
This will find first two phrases and omit the last within the search
Special meaning keywords: OR, AND and NOT
Useful tools for refining a word/phrase search (see above).
OR - will find records containing A or B, or both
AND - will find records containing A and B
AND NOT - will exlude records containing C from search list A, B and not C
If you want to remove the special meaning of a key word and search for either OR or AND then you can:
- put the word in double quotation marks - e.g. "and" "or"
- put a backslash in front of it - e.g.. \and \or
The search engine will then include AND or OR in its search
SPECIAL CHARACTERS AND BACKSLASHES
Special characters, including double quotation marks, can be included in a word or phrase, represented by a backslash.
e.g. E=MC\
This tells the search engine to look for this word with a special character at the end (or at the beginning or in the middle, depending on where you position the backslash)
A literal backslash is represented by typing a double backslash
e.g. either\\or
WILDCARDS
If you are not certain of the spelling of a word then you can use wildcard characters to indicate unknown elements.
* - an asterisk represents any number of characters.
e.g. a search for bus* will bring up records with bus, business, busy, businesslike, busking and so on
? - a question mark represents one character.
e.g. a search for bus? Will bring up four letter words beginning with bus, such as bush, busy, bust and so on
[ ] - square brackets denote a character class. The search will look for any of the characters listed within the brackets
e.g. a search for b[aei]t will bring up records such as 'bat', 'bit', 'bet' and so forth.
