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[Back] SIMPLE SEARCH TOOL The search engine permits users to search the entire list of collections. Searches can be done, for example, by place names (e.g., Auschwitz, Vienna, Palestine), company and organization names (e.g., Krupp, SS), certain Nazi terminology (e.g., Umsiedlung, Lebensborn), generic terms (e.g., prison, hospital), and any other terms that appear in the inventory text. One may search the inventory using either German or English language terms. The search engine is not case sensitive. For example, if one enters the camp name "Dachau" (without the quotes) in the simple search tool to which the user is taken first, the search engine will retrieve all collections in which the word Dachau appears in any of the information fields. The search results can be narrowed by adding additional terms to the search box without removing "Dachau." Thus, entering "Dachau" and "prisoner" in the search box will deliver a list of all collections in which both the word Dachau and the word prisoner appear in any of the entered fields. It is not necessary to use "and" or "+" to achieve this result. The search engine automatically understands that you are looking for collections that include all of the words entered in the search box. One can also search for exact phrases by placing the phrase inside quotation marks. Entering the two words Jewish and prisoners in the search box will return all collections where these two words appear in the information fields relating to each collection. But entering the exact phrase "Jewish prisoners" within quotation marks in the search box will return only collections where the exact phrase "Jewish prisoners" appears. The search engine will return a list of collections that meet the criteria of the search. The list will consist of a German-language description of the collection, followed by an English-language translation of the German description. The results in every search are listed in the chronological order in which the collections were registered at ITS. On occasion, this will mean that a collection deposited at an earlier date, but not registered until a later date, will appear on the list later than some collections that arrived and were registered immediately. In general, however, such cases are unusual. The user can view all fields of available information about a collection by clicking on the View box in the lower left-hand corner of each entry on the search results list. Users can access information about additional collections on the search results list either by clicking on the Return to List box and selecting another collection to View, or by going directly to the immediately next or previous collection on the list by clicking on Next or Previous. To assist researchers interested in following the flow of documentation into the ITS archives, the inventory includes a field labeled "Sheet Name," which indicates the span of years during which the collection was registered at ITS. Typing one of the "Sheet Name" labels into the search box will deliver a list of all the collections registered during the respective period of years. These "Sheet Name" labels can also be used to narrow a search, i.e., entering "Dachau" and one of the "Sheet Name" labels will deliver a list of all "Dachau" results from the respective registration period. There are seven "Sheet Name" labels. To obtain the results just described, they must be entered in German precisely as shown below:
It is also possible to search the inventory by the source of collections, that is, by the name of the institution or organization that deposited the documents at ITS or from which documents were copied. Source names in the on-line inventory have been left in the form in which they appear in the original ITS list of collections. Most are in German, but some (e.g., "US Army") are in the language of the source institution. A list of selected frequently appearing and/or unusual sources of ITS collections, or sources with German names for which English translations may be useful to some users, appears at the conclusion of these user notes as Appendix A. A very useful feature of the search engine is the ability to search by only the first part of a search word or term. This is achieved by entering as much of the word or term as is desired (for example, the root that is common to multiple forms of the word) followed by an asterisk (*). This is particularly helpful when the exact form of a word or term of interest may vary from collection to collection or according to whether the term is being used as a noun, adjective, verb, etc. For example, searching the term "execut*" in English will return results for execute, executes, executed, execution, executions, executive, etc, i.e., all words in the index that begin with "execut." The same feature functions if searches are conducted in German. Searching the term "Arbeit*" will return results for Arbeit, Arbeiter, Arbeitslager, arbeitet, etc. The feature also works for numbers (e.g., 195* will search all years and numbers that begin with 195). [Back] |