How to Search the Online Catalogue

Simple Searching

Searching the ‘Text:’ field searches all text items within the catalogue. This is comprehensive but may return unwanted records. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard to broaden a search, for instance:

danc* will return search results for all words beginning with danc, such as dance, dancer and dancers.

Searching the ‘Ref No:’ field displays all records with 'reference numbers' matching the search string. For instance searching ‘DWE’ returns all records in the Dorothy Whitney Elmhirst collection. This is useful if you know part or all of the alphanumeric reference number assigned to a collection or its component. Search by Title if you know all or part of the title.

Search by Date if you know the approximate date of an event. A wide range of date formats are supported including single years (1939); date ranges (1931-1935); decades (1930s); and centuries (20^th century), but be aware that all dates within the date field entered will be returned, for instance, 20th century will return every date between 1900 and 1999. You can combine searches in different fields to refine your search results.

Photograph searching

Searching the 'Text' field and selecting 'Photograph' from the 'Format' drop down menu will return photographic records. For instance, searching Text:'dancers' and Format:'Photograph' will return all photographs of and about dancers. Subsequently clicking on the 'Details' link will return the descriptive record together with the image.

Searching our people and organisations archive

You can find names of individuals or organisations (particularly as it relates to The Dartington Hall Trust), use the 'Person and Organisations Search' and enter the name in the 'Name'' field.

Complex searching: AND, OR and PHRASE

The logical options at the bottom of the search screen can be used for complex searching. For instance, combine different fields set to AND: Any text = Dance AND Date = 1930s  yields dance related manuscripts between 1930 and 1939.

Or combine two fields set to OR. For instance;

Any text = Dance OR Date = 1930s yields all dance manuscripts and all 1930s manuscripts.You can also search by combining words within a field using either AND or OR

Any text = Dance AND Mime yields descriptions of records which each contain both words dance and mime.

The PHRASE search option can be used within the same field and will return catalogue records containing exact words in a phrase as specified in the search field.

Interpreting results

Results are displayed in hit lists of 10 items to a page and are sorted by reference number. Use the Next and Prev buttons to move through a hit list.

Please be aware that some records must be kept closed due to the strict requirements of the Data Protection Act of 1998 and/or the archival closure period of 30 year agreed by the Dartington Hall Trustees. We also restrict access to information about living people.

Further Research

All enquiries relating to research excluding for Dartington Hall School should be made to:
Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
+44 (0)1392 384253
+44 (0)1392 384256
devrec@devon.gov.uk
www.devon.gov.uk/record_office