Search
Help on searching
The Search feature uses 'pattern matching' to find results, so what you type in must be accurately spelled and in the right order or the search will fail: short and simple search phrases produce the best results.
Results are sorted firstly by year (descending), then by author (ascending).
The search feature is not case sensitive so Nottingham is treated in the same way as nottingham.
Wildcard
The wildcard character, %, is used to replace individual letters, or sequences of letters, and is useful if you are unsure of the spelling: e.g., entering place%names in the 'Title' search box will find place names, place-names and placenames.
If you are searching for a phrase please remember to leave no spaces between the words. For example, use stoke%field (not stoke % field) to find entries relating to the Battle of Stoke Field.
Author
For best results include the author's first initial in this format: Barley, M
Use a full stop if more than one initial is used in the search: e.g., Beckett, J. V.
Title of book
The title of the book or article, e.g., a history of retford or the king's gambit.
It is advisable to keep search phrases as short as possible as the database uses 'pattern matching' to find results so what you type in must be accurately spelled and in the right order: i.e., a search on nottingham centenary history (as opposed to the correct title of centenary history of nottingham) will produce no results.
Place
Place-names are based on those listed in the English Place-Name Society's The place-names of Nottinghamshire (1940).
For consistency, hyphens are not used in place-names: e.g., Sturton le Steeple rather than Sturton-le-Steeple.
Place-names with geographical identifiers (e.g. 'North', 'East' etc.) are in the following format: East Markham, North Collingham, West Leake, etc.
Subject
The top-level subject groupings used:
- Biography and family history
- Culture and recreation
- Economic history
- Geography
- Historic environment
- History and archaeology
- Local government and services
- Military history
- Political history
- Population
- Religion
- Science
- Social history
Notes
The 'Notes' field is used to provide further information on a publication and, where the title of the book or article is vague, seeks to explain the subject matter.
Year of publication
Enter single year, e.g. 1850 or 1999.