ArtsSearch Tips
How to use the basic search
- Type your keyword(s) in the search box.
- Click the Go button or press the Enter key on your keyboard to start your search.
- Type hockey in the search box.
- Click the Go button or press the Enter key on your keyboard.
The results page will display the titles of documents with hockey found within them with the most relevant content appearing at the top. This type of search will display related results from the extensive Culture.ca collection of quality Canadian Web sites, unique Culture.ca content as well as all the related records found in the Canadian Encyclopedia Online.
Note: Some search terms or keywords may provide results in French as well as in English.
Tips for a more exact search
Following are tools which can be used to narrow your search.
-
AND
It is not necessary to add ‘AND’ between your keywords. The search function will automatically assume an intersection (such as 'AND') of every element within a query.
This means that the query: Halifax Calgary will find documents that have both Halifax and Calgary in them but not necessarily within one word of each other in a particular document. -
OR
It is also not necessary to use the word ‘OR’ between your keywords. If you would like to search for a list of elements such as Halifax or Iqaluit or Québec, simply place the keywords within parenthesis and separate them with commas with no space after the comma, like so:
(Halifax,Iqaluit,Québec)
-
Exact word and order
If you wish to receive results that match an exact keyword phrases in a particular order, you can either use quotation marks or a hyphen to achieve this.-
Quotation marks ("...")
The use of double quotation marks around a term will return only the results matching the exact term in the exact order. The case of your words does not matter.
Ex. For an exact search for Alexandre Despatie, you could use “Alexandre Despatie” or “alexandre despatie”
-
Hyphen (-)
Putting a hyphen between your keywords will also return only results matching the exact term in the exact order. Again, the case of your words does not matter.
Ex. For an exact search for Alexandre Despatie, you could use Alexandre-Despatie or alexandre-despatie.
-
-
Asterisk (*)
The wild-card character or asterisk (*) can be used to match just the prefix of a word.
Ex. If you enter sculpt* the results will contain: sculpt, sculptor, sculpture, sculptress...
-
Without
The wild-card character * (asterisk) may be used to match just the prefix of a word or to ignore the middle of something.
For example: if you enter sculpt* the results will contain: sculpt, sculptor, sculpture, sculptress...
-
Mandatory
The plus symbol (+) in front of a search item (and with a space in front of the plus) means that the search results must include that item.
Ex. If you enter (winnipeg,regina) +vancouver, the results will show documents ideally containing the words Winnipeg or Regina or both but all must contain Vancouver.
-
Important Words
If a phrase is entered into the search field the search will filter out the most important words (often nouns and verbs) and use them as the basis for the search.
Ex. If you enter you will find sculpture in montreal, the results will show documents containing find, sculpture and Montréal.
-
Alternative keywords
If a keyword is entered into the search field that calls up no results or only one result on the Results Page, then up to three alternative keywords will be given to further the search. Following each suggested word, in brackets, is the number of results that the keyword will call up if selected.
-
Spell check
If a keyword is entered that is obviously misspelled and caused no results to be found, then on the results page up to three alternative spellings will be suggested. Following each word suggested, in brackets, is the number of results that the keyword will call up if selected.
-
Thesaurus
The tilde symbol (~) can be used to search for a word and its synonyms.
Ex. If ~road is entered, the search engine will return results for road, way, street etc.
Understanding the results page
-
Page navigation:
Each results page displays up to 10 results. You can access pages 1 to 20 from the horizontal page index below the last result displayed. Pages beyond number 20 can be accessed by selecting "Next" which is to the right of page 20 in the index. "Previous" will take the user back to the page before.
-
Title:
The title of the result is an active link to the online version of the document found.
-
Abstract
A short descriptive paragraph provides an abstract of the document found. The keywords (or search terms) that are part of that abstract are presented in bold.
-
URL
The URL address of the results site is given.
-
Last modified date
The last modified date is the date that the found site or page was last modified.
-
Find Similar
The Find Similar link will find documents that are similar to the corresponding result.
-
Document Properties
URL: URL of the site
Depth: how many clicks from the Home page the document page is located
Size: the size of the original document (in megabytes)
Modified: the date that the document was last modified
Title: the title of the document
Description: a description in the metadata of the document
Keywords: document keywords in the metadata
-
Show Parent
This link will show other documents that contain hyperlinks to the one you clicked on. In other words it is an automated back button.
-
Rank Bar
Displays the percentage of relevance of the document found in relation to the entered search terms or keywords.
Culture.ca collaborates with many partners who are recognized leaders in Canadian culture, including:
