How to search Georgian Papers Online
Quick Search of the Catalogue
This is a simple search that is accessed via the search box in the top right hand corner of the page. By default, this search will only search across the title and description fields in the catalogue.
Type the word or phrase you wish to search for into the box and click the Search button.
Please note, where more than one search term is entered, the default is an AND search. For example a search of the words 'Windsor' ' London' will return catalogue records including both of these words.
Boolean Searches
It is possible to combine search terms in the Quick Search function using the Boolean "and, or, not" searching options:
+ represents Boolean And, meaning the search result must include the word.
- represents Boolean Not, meaning the search result must exclude the word.
| represents Boolean Or, meaning the search result may include this word.
Place one of these symbols before a word or phrase to apply the search. Use double quotation marks around a search term to return exact matching phrases.
Advanced Search of the Catalogue
More detailed searches of the catalogue, using specific fields, can be carried out in the Advanced Search form. The following fields can be searched in this way:
Any Text
Use to search across all fields in all records. Any word or phrase can be searched for.
Reference
If you know the reference of the document or item that you wish to find in the catalogue, use the reference field for your search. References will be in the form 'GEO/MAIN/36792' or 'GEO/ADD/32/2453' for material from the Royal Archives, or 'RCIN 1028949' for material from the Royal Library. Please note a significant amount of material is catalogued at file level, which means the reference will be given as a range such as GEO/MAIN/6963-6975. If this is the case then use wildcard(*) searching or use the Any Text field to search for individual references which will pick up the relevant information in the Description field, where documents are listed.
Collection
This field refers to the title of the collection e.g. Lady Charlotte Finch, George III Essays. If you know the collection you are particularly interested in, type keywords in to the Collection field search box.
Title
Use to search for keywords in the title field of the catalogue record. Please note that for collections catalogued at file level, details of document titles are listed in the Description field
Date
This is the date, or date range, of the item or collection. You can enter a specific date or a date range when searching e.g. 1787, 1810-1830, or 18th century.
Description
The description field is used in the catalogue record to expand on details in the title field so often contains people and place names, in addition to a synopsis or part transcriptions of the record in question. For collections catalogued at file level, the Description field is also used to list the reference, writer, addressee of the documents within that file.
Writer
To search for letters or documents written by a particular person, enter all or part of a name here. Please note that for collections catalogued at file level, details of writers are listed in the Description field.
Addressee
To search for letters or documents written by a particular person, enter all or part of a name here. Please note that for collections catalogued at file level, details of addressees are listed in the Description field.
Useful Information
Record Type
At file and item level, many records have been categorised by type to facilitate filtered searches. The record types available are: Financial records, Correspondence, Diaries, Commonplace Books, Writings (documents), Legal documents, Wills, Maps (documents), Prints (visual works) and Registers (lists).
Extent
The extent of the record(s) given is appropriate to the level of description. Please note that at item level, one letter or memorandum equals one document, regardless of length. At file and item level the number of pages in the document(s) is often given to guide users as to the size of the digital image download.
Publications
Publications cited in the catalogue are generally limited to the edited volumes of the Georgian Papers compiled by Aspinall, Fortescue and Donne.
Tips and Tricks
For certain fields in the Advanced Search form (specifically any text, title and description), it is possible to ‘Refine Search Criteria’. Use this function to specify that the search results contain records with ‘all the words’, ‘at least one of the words’, or ‘without the words’, entered in the relevant search boxes. Boolean symbols are not required.
To search for an exact phrase use double quotation marks around the phrase, e.g. “Charlotte Finch”.
To perform a wildcard search, use an asterisk (*) to make a search more flexible, e.g. searching for Char* will find records including the names Charlotte and Charles.
Search results
Search results are presented with brief details in a hitlist. If they extend to more than one page click on Next and Previous to navigate through the pages.
To sort the results by collection, date etc., click on the small arrows to the left of the column headings on the search results page.
Click on a record to see its full details and to access the digitised images of the document to which it refers.
Please note, as the cataloguing guidelines for Georgian Papers Online have evolved over time, some newer records may have additional fields displayed in the catalogue, such as 'Record Type'. All catalogue records will be brought into line with the new cataloguing guidelines in due course.
Images of some of the documents have been withheld while third party rights are cleared. If the document you wish to see has been withheld, please email your request with the document reference to [email protected].
Hierarchy browser
In the catalogue record, click on the reference (highlighted in blue) to see where in the collection hierarchy a catalogue record belongs. It is possible to navigate the rest of the collection through the hierarchy browser and open specific catalogue records.