Browse
A left navigation area displays four ways to browse the Digital Archive: Collections, Featured Content, Time Periods, and Places. Each heading is independently expandable/collapsible by clicking the small icon. Expanding a heading reveals a tree view of the relevant list. Clicking the heading itself displays the browse list in the main part of the window. When you click Browse in the main navigation bar, Collections is active by default.
- Collections List – a list of all the collections in the Digital Archive. Collections may consist of subcollections. For each (sub)collection, there is a View link and an About link. Clicking View displays thumbnail images of the items in the collection. Clicking About takes you to a page that describes the contents of the collection.
- Featured Content List – a selected listing of subjects and formats that represent the core content of the Digital Archive, grouped at the collection level. Clicking a link displays thumbnail images of the items in the selected collection(s).
- Time Periods List – all of the content in the Digital Archive, grouped by time period. Clicking a link displays thumbnail images of items within the selected time period.
- Places – all of the content in the Digital Archive, grouped by city, state/province, and country. Clicking a link displays thumbnail images of items within the selected place.
Search
To do a simple search, type one or more words into the search box located in the upper right corner of every page.
All Keywords (AND)
By default, searching on multiple keywords retrieves items in which ALL of the keywords occur.
For example, typing in the keywords "Pico oil" (without the quotes) will return items that contain both "Pico" and "oil".
Any Keyword (OR)
Separating keywords with the word "OR" expands a search and returns items that contain any one of the keywords.
For example, typing in "flatbed OR truck" (without the quotes) finds items that contain the term "flatbed" as well as items that contain the term "truck."
Exact Match (“”)
To search for an exact phrase, surround keywords with double quotes.
For example, typing in “Pico Rivera” (including the quotes) only retrieves items that contain that exact phrase.
Wildcard Searches (?, *)
Partial words can be searched by using the wildcard characters "?" or " * " in a search term. To wildcard only one character, substitute "?" for a letter in the middle or at the end of a keyword. To wildcard one or more characters, replace a given number of letters with " * " (the asterisk or star symbol) in the middle or at the end of a term. You may use more than one wildcard within the same search keyword.
Examples:
Tr?ck finds "track" and "trick" but not "tricks"
m?n finds "man" and "men" but not “mourn”
cow* finds "cow," "cows," and "cowboy"
Capital Letters, Punctuation and Diacritics
Searches are not case-sensitive; a search for "los angeles" or "Los Angeles" will return the same results.
Punctuation marks such as commas, periods, and dashes should not affect keyword searches.
Diacritics, however, must be typed correctly in search terms. A useful alternative is to replace a diacritic with a wildcard character. For example, typing in "Espree" does not retrieve the item that contains "Esprée"; however, typing in "Espr?e" should retrieve items that contain either "Espree" or "Esprée".
Advanced Search
Keyword Search
The keyword search tab is active by default. You may type keywords here just as in Simple Search. As an alternative to using 'OR' or double quotes in your search terms, you may use the options below the search box to expand or limit your search: 'All Words' is selected by default, and functions as an 'AND' search. Choose the 'Any Words' option to search any of the entered keywords. Choose the 'Exact Match' option to search the exact phrase entered.
Record ID Search
Click the Record ID tab to search for items using a unique record identifier. The Record ID consists of an abbreviation of the collection followed by a hyphen, the letter "m", and an integer, e.g. chs-m22191.
Limit by Media Type
You may limit your search by media type. All media types are checked by default. Images are photographs of people and places generally. Maps are geographic representations of large areas of the world. Physical Objects are images of actual items or materials. Texts are words and sentences in any language. Time-Based Media is audio or video files.
Date Range Search
You may limit your search by date range. Enter a beginning and an end date.
Collection
You may limit your search to specific collections or subcollections. Checking a (sub)collection will include it in your search. All collections are checked by default.
Viewing Items
Search Results
Search results appear on the page as a series of 100-pixel thumbnail images with titles. The toolbar at the top of the page allows you to control the display.
- Search within results – You may search within the current search result set by entering a keyword here and clicking "Go". The triggered search will take all of the parameters for the current search results and add the new terms entered in this box as an "AND" operation.
- List View/Lightbox View - Clicking 'List View' displays all search results in a single column with additional information about the image. Clicking 'Lightbox View' displays search results in a grid layout.
- Results per page – You can choose how many items to display on the page.
- Sort by – The default sort order is by relevance. You may also sort by date, title, and collection.
- Paging navigation – Use the paging navigation to go to the previous/next page of results or to a specific page of results. The current page number is displayed along with adjacent pages.
An "Add" button is displayed below each thumbnail image. By clicking "Add", the item is saved to My Selections for later retrieval. Clicking a thumbnail image on the search results page opens the Item Detail page.
Item Detail
A complete description (metadata) of the item is displayed on the right side of the Item Detail page, including title, description, format, and copyright/ordering information.
On the left side of the Item Detail page, thumbnail images of the digital objects (which may include images, audio, text, video) that belong to the item are displayed. A large 256-pixel rendering of the selected object appears above the thumbnail images. Clicking a thumbnail image selects that object and displays it in the large image area. You may also use the left/right arrows to navigate among the digital objects.
Several icons located below the large image area allow you to save the item for later viewing, e-mail information about the item, and print the details of the item.
Clicking the 256-pixel image or the magnifying glass icon opens the appropriate viewer/player for the selected object.
Viewer/Player
- Audio (.mp3) – All audio files in the Digital Archive are available in mp3 format. Clicking the 256-pixel image opens your default media player that
- MrSIDs – Objects in some of the collections (Dunbar, El Clamor, Greene & Greene, Sea of Korea Maps, WPA Maps) are available as MrSIDs files. The MrSIDs viewer offers enhanced functionality to zoom in and pan over the image.
- Image – A large 1024-pixel wide image of the item is displayed.
Search History
You may select "Search History" in the main navigation bar at any time to review previous searches that you have conducted in the current session. A list of all your previous searches is listed with the search parameters. Click the "Go" button or the keyword link to redo the search.
Closing your browser automatically deletes your list of searches.
My Selections
My Selections is an area where you store images for later retrieval. You can print selected items in a printer-friendly view or e-mail them—either as a group or individually. You can go to My Selections at any time by selecting it from the main navigation bar at the top of the page.
The items you place in My Selections remain until you delete them (or disable cookies).
Contact Us
If you need additional help, please use this form to contact us. A link to this form is also located at the bottom of every page.