ArchivesSpace Help

To begin a search, use the search bar on the ArchivesSpace home page.

To learn more about each repository, including contact details, select the “Repositories” tab.

You can return to the ArchivesSpace home page at any time by clicking on "Hesburgh Libraries" in the top banner.

See Search Phrasing below for detailed usage information

By default, the main search box uses AND as a search operator.

• Begin a basic search by entering your search terms in the search bar. You may limit the search by searchable fields, record type, or date.
• The searchable fields are:
  • Keyword: Searches the text of the entire finding aid, including all components.
  • Title: Searches titles of the materials described, including collection records and series and files within collections. If you know the precise title of the resource you’re looking for, searching by title can be very helpful.
  • Creator: Searches names of the persons, families, and organizations who created the collections.
  • Subject: Searches by subject headings assigned to materials by archivists, librarians, and Curators (e.g. Catholic Church.)
  • Notes: Limits searches to Notes fields located within a resource record. (e.g. Scope and Content Note or Biographical/Historical Note).
  • Identifier: Searches by identifier, which is an alphanumeric code by which materials can be tracked and requested.
• Record types allow you to customize the type of records you want a search to return:
  • Limit to collections will only return records for collections, rather than people, subjects, series, and files. Limit to digital materials will include only resource records, folders, or items that contain digital materials.
  • You may select a date span to limit the search results chronologically. Searching by date is approximate, and results may fall outside the date span you enter.
• You may construct a more complex search by selecting the + icon and adding additional search parameters.

• Searches are not case sensitive.
• You may search for phrases by including quotation marks (e.g. “Jack Pfefer Collection”)
• You may add a tilde (~) to search for search terms within a specified number of words of one another (e.g. “Catholic microfilm”~3 will return results where the term microfilm occurs within 3 words of the term Catholic).
• “Wildcard” symbols ? and * help return a greater number of relevant results by searching for variant spellings and forms of search terms simultaneously.
  • ? replaces a single letter in a search term (e.g. searching m?cro will return both micro and macro)
  • * replaces any number of letters at the end of a search term (e.g. searching Catholic* will return Catholic, Catholics, Catholicism, and Catholicity)
  • ? and * may not be used as the first character of a word.
  • To use a wildcard in combination with another search term (e.g. Catholic* doctrine), use the + icon to create another row and enter each search term in a separate row.

• Once you’ve done a search and are on the search results page, you can use the filter pane on the right side of the page to further limit and customize search results.
• You may use the filter pane to filter by repository, record type, subject, and name.
• You may also use the search bar at the top of the filter pane to create additional searches within the search results.