How to Use This Site
For an outline of the organization of this site, please consult our Sitemap page.
Search Help
You can simply click and browse to your heart’s content, but if you want to find specific information, it’s best to use the Search functions. As it happens, the site has three different search areas:
(1) The Search Site box in the header of every page searches the entire website. It is the most inclusive type of search, but there is no way to focus your search results.
(2) The search box on the News pages will search only the news and announcements for the site. The News posts cover from Spring 2018 to the present. For earlier postings, see the link at the top of the News page.
(3) This search box only searches the Collections database, the centerpiece of the site that contains records for both the cultural objects and the oral history interviews.
You can simply enter one or more words for searching in the Search part of the box, but the real power of searching comes from using the several filters below to narrow your results.
You can even use those filters to browse the Collections without typing in any search terms. Simply click on one of the labels, e.g., “All Categories,” and you will be able to choose from among the 12 categories of items (which are also listed on the Collections front page.)
Search Examples
In this example, we did not enter any search terms at all, but simply chose “Quilts” from the list of Categories. All of the results are brief listings of quilts in the database. Click on either the thumbnail image or the title to see the full information on each item.
Continuing with the example above, if you wanted to find quilts from the Red Oak Grove section of Floyd County, you would click on “All Places” and choose that area. Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of items that match each criterion.
Very Important: Each time you use a different type of search filter (Categories, Places, etc.), you are reducing the number of items that you will find. In the second sample search, you are only going to find those quilts that have a connection with Red Oak Grove. You are being “pickier” about what you want, so naturally you will find fewer items.
If you change your mind and want to eliminate one or more criteria, just click on the little “x” in front of the label in the search filters.
One final example: if you wanted to find either Coverlets OR Quilts from, say, Burks Fork, you can choose the Categories one at a time, then add the Place.
Summary of Searching in Collections
- Entering words in the Search Collections box is optional. Do this if you are looking for something very specific.
- Whether or not you enter search words, you can use any combination of criteria in the Narrow your search results by… part of the search area.
- Using criteria in different areas–Categorles, Places, Materials, Dates, or People–will cause you to find fewer items.
- Using multiple criteria inside a single area will increase the number of items you find.