Help

How do I search for materials?

• Begin a basic search by entering your search terms in the search bar. You may limit the search by searchable fields, record type, and date.
• The searchable fields are:
  • Keyword: Searches the entire text of the finding aid.
  • Title: Searches titles of the materials described, including collection records and series and files within collections. If you know the precise title of the thing you’re looking for, searching by title can be very helpful.
  • Creator: Primarily searches names of the persons, families, and organizations who created the collections. Please note that limiting by “Creator” will primarily search only creators of collections, not individual records or items within collections. Most creators are connected only at the collection level and not at series or file level records. Creators of series and file level records are usually included in the series or file title.
  • Subject: Searches by subject headings assigned to materials by archivists and librarians, e.g. Affordable Housing.
  • Notes: Searches any of the note fields
  • Identifier: If you already know the series or record group identifier, you can search for associated records. Please note that archival folders do not have identifiers.
• You can limit a search to return only certain types of records:
  • Limit to series will only return records for series, rather than people, subjects, record groups, and folders.
  • Limit to archival folders will only return records for folders. When you select folders, the field type will change to title as this is the field that is distinctive to folders. Keywords will bring in fields from the series.
  • Limit to record groups will only return records for record groups.
  • Limit to subjects will only return records for subject headings.
  • Limit to names will only return records for authorized name headings. It will not find names included in note fields or folder titles.
• You may select a date span to limit the search results chronologically. Searching by date is approximate, and results may fall outside the date span you enter. For example, if you search for records between 1900 and 1950, your results will likely show collections and series with broader date ranges, such as a result with a date span of 1800-1970 since that date range includes the years 1900-1950.
• You may construct a more complex search by selecting the + icon and adding additional search parameters.

What should I know about phrasing my searches?

• Searches are not case sensitive.
• You may search for phrases by including quotation marks (e.g. “Affordable Housing”)
• By default, searches with three or fewer search terms return results containing all of the search terms. Searches with four or more search terms return results containing most of the search terms. You may add OR and NOT to change this behavior.
• You may add a tilde (~) to search for search terms within a specified number of words of one another (e.g. “affordable housing”~5 will return results where the term affordable occurs within 5 words of the term housing).
• “Wildcard” symbols ? and * help return a greater number of relevant results by searching for variant spellings and forms of search terms simultaneously.
  • ? replaces a single letter in a search term (e.g. searching wom?n will return both women and woman
  • * replaces any number of letters at the end of a search term (e.g. searching mission* will return mission, missions, missionary, and missionaries)
  • ? and * may not be used as the first character of a word.
  • To use a wildcard in combination with another search term (e.g. wom?n suffrage), use the + icon to create another row and enter each search term in a separate row.

How can I filter my search results?

• Once you’ve done a search and are on the search results page, you can use the filter pane on the left side of the page to further limit and customize search results.
• You may use the filter pane to filter by repository, record type, subject, and name.
• You may also use the search bar at the top of the filter pane to create additional searches within the search results.

How do I navigate the site?

To begin a search, use the search bar on the home page.

To see a full list of series by identifier, click the series tab. You can change to sort alphabetically.

To see a full alphabetical list of subjects, click the subjects tab.

To see a full alphabetical list of names, click the names tab.

To see a full list of record groups by identifier, click the record group tab.

For help and FAQs, click the help tab.

You can return to the home page at any time by clicking on the Seattle Municipal Archives Finding Aids heading.

Glossary of Terms

Archives are materials created or received by a person, family, or organization that are preserved because of the enduring value of the information they contain.

Record Groups are groups of materials assembled by a person, family, organization, or repository. They may be divided hierarchically into series, subseries, and folders.

Series are sets of records from the same creator of a similar type or function; for example, City Light annual reports or Engineering Dept. bridge records.

Archival folders are the most detailed level of description for most textual records. Folder titles are searchable, but not generally not individual documents within each folder

Finding aids are guides that allow users to discover, understand, and access archival collections. Finding aids describe the creation, arrangement, content, and context of archival materials.

Name records are the people, families, and organizations that create archival materials.

Subject records are topics, places, and genres used to describe the context and content of archival materials.

Need additional help? Contact the archives at archives@seattle.gov