Search help DigitaltMuseum

In the same way as you would perform a search using Google, simply type one or more search words in the search field and either click ‘Search’ or press the ‘Enter’ key on your keyboard. A search word must contain at least 3 characters. When you enter a search word, the number of results matching the word(s) you have typed is displayed beneath the search field; you then have the opportunity to continue your search for this word within either one museum or the whole of DigitaltMuseum. You can also perform a blank search by leaving the search field empty and clicking on ‘Search’ or pressing ‘Enter’.

You also have the option to perform an advanced search by entering different search words for different database fields. More information about this is contained below, under the heading ‘Advanced search’.

Choose your search word

Choosing a good search word is the key to finding the information you are looking for. Start with the most obvious word and increase the precision of your search by using more than one word. If you enter several words separated with spaces, your search will only return matches for objects that contain all of those words.
When searching, DigitaltMuseum does not distinguish between the use of upper and lower-case letters. When you find an object that interests you, you can find similar objects by using the underlined words or terms contained in the object’s information. Click on the underlined subject word, name or classification and you will receive new search results featuring objects from within this category. In this way, you can easily search around to find other objects that are similar to the one you originally found.

Refine the search results

A standard search within DigitaltMuseum scans all the objects from all the institutions. If, however, you then click on one (or more) of the ‘Topic’, ‘Place’ or ‘Time’ buttons that appear beneath the search field, you can choose to refine the search results in various ways. If you click on any of these buttons, possible filtering suggestions for your search results are displayed. When you make a selection, the search is updated using the selected filter. To return to the search results, either click on ‘Close’ in the top right-hand corner or click anywhere on the black background.
If you perform a search from a presentation page of one of the museums/institutions, your new search will automatically be restricted to this museum’s collections. From here, however, you are always able to choose to widen your search to include the entire DigitaltMuseum.

By enclosing your search words in "quotation marks", only those objects that include the exact words – in the exact order you have written them – will be returned. Searching for "Happy Christmas" will only return objects that feature both words together (Happy Christmas), but not any objects that only contain the word "Happy" or the word "Christmas".

In the left-hand field, you can select the category to be searched. The field in the middle allows you to select the search operation. In the right-hand field, you can enter the search word/value.

Advanced search – search field

You may construct an advanced search by clicking "Advanced search" in the main menu. You can switch between the advanced and the standard search at any time, and whatever search string or filter you may have applied, will be transfered between the two search modes.

The following describes each search field in the advanced search interface:

Text – freetext that searches through all fields
Type - Limit the search to specific object types
Topic - Limit the search to specific topics that may have been added to an object. Use commas to separate multiple topics
Place - Filter by country, county, municipality or city
Time - Specify a single year in the format XXXX or a period from one year to another in the format XXXX-XXXX
Collection - Limit the search to individual collections
Media - Limit the search to objects that may or may not have photograps, video, audio og coordinates
Licenses - Limit the search to objects that have a certain license applied
Producer - Perform a search (freetext) to the field "producer" (photographer, artist, designer, architect or author

In addition you may add the following fields to the search:
ID - Limit the search to specific identifiers. This field accepts values for all IDs including object identifier, Dimu code, UUID, exhibitions and folders
Title
Designation
Material
History
Classification
Technique

Advanced search – search operations

You may find the use of operators useful when performing a search. Operators can be used in the freetext search field both in the standard search and the advanced search. Please use capital letters when typing the operators:

Include all - search words are joined by AND
Include any - search words are joined by OR
Exclude all or any - an object is not shown if it contains any of the search words. Use NOT to separate

Examples of searches using operators:

Jakke AND blå - shows all objects containing both "jakke" and "blå"
Jakke OR blå - shows all objects where either "jakke" or "blå" is present
Jakke NOT blå - shows all objects where "jakke" is present, but excludes all objects where "blå" is present
Jakke AND bukse NOT blå - Shows all objects where both "jakke" and "bukse" is present, excludes objects where "blå" is present
Jakke OR bukse NOT blå - Shows all objects where either "jakke" or "bukse" is present, but excludes the objects where "blå" is present

Please note that using a space between search words will apply the AND-operator automatically.

Search syntax

Using the search syntax is a method of perfoming a precise advanced search both efficiently and effectively. The search syntax is added in the standard free text search field and supports searches to every field in DigitaltMuseum.

Examples of search syntax:

place:Sverige - Performs a search limited to "Sverige" in the field "place"
topic:portrett - Performs a search limited to "portrett" in the topics field
time:1990-2000 - Performs a search limited to the years between 1900 and 2000
license:by-sa - Performs a search limited to the licenses "by-sa"
media:true - Performs a search limited to objects that have images, videos or audio
type:photograph - Performs a search limited to objects of the type "Photograph"

You may combine several search syntax, for instance:

skulptur owner:NF place:Oslo media:true

will return all objects matching the free text search skulptur within the collection of Norsk Folkemuseum (NF) where the place Oslo has been added and there are media files connected to the object.