Our collections are listed in our catalogue according to archival standards, meaning a hierarchy of linked catalogue entries, from a top-level description that describes a whole collection down to a specific container or item within the collection.

Start searching the collection for the particular themes you are interested in via the Special Collections catalogue home page. 

If you are searching for a particular subject, person or place, click on Advanced Search and put your search term into the Description box.

If you want to narrow down your search, click on the Refine Search button or on the Search menu at the top of the page to open up the Advanced Search screen. This allows you to combine search terms and search for particular dates. 

The general search on the catalogue home page is best for fuzzy searching, for example, if you are not quite sure if a search term appears in the title or description. The advanced search is far more picky about which particular catalogue field a search term appears in.

Try browsing through the hierarchical tree of descriptions to get a sense of what is in the collection and how the various parts fit together. If you know what collection you are interested in, type the name into our catalogue search box, e.g. for the Kate Adie Collection, search for Kate Adie.

1. Go to the collection level description page and click on Ref No ‘KA’.

2. This will take you to an expandable tree with the option to browse more detailed layers of description.

3. Clicking ‘+’ will expand another level, and clicking on the title will take you into the full description.

4. Clicking on the Ref No. will take you back to the tree.