Using Europeana

Welcome to Europeana. This page describes some of the things that you can do while you are here. Learn more about:

• Searching in Europeana: Advanced search, Refined search, Phrase search, Exclude words, Auto-completion, Spelling suggestions
• Explore and Navigate: Through time
• Results in Europeana: Seeing further details, Viewing the object in its original context, Related content
• My Europeana

Searching in Europeana

Searching the millions of items in Europeana is simple. Just ask yourself who, what, where or when you are interested in and type these words into Europeana's search box. You can try:

• Who: Names of actors, authors, architects, artists, choreographers, composers, conductors, dancers, film directors, musicians or photographers.
• What: Words from titles of books, poems, newspapers, paintings, photographs, films or television programmes.
• Where: Names of towns, cities or countries within Europe or around the world.
• When: Dates (e.g. 1945) such as the year you were born in or a famous date in history or a period (e.g. Roman or Medieval).

Use the advanced search link under Europeana's main search box to find specific words in titles, names of creators (e.g. authors, artists, musicians, etc.) or dates (e.g. 1945). You can also combine search terms (e.g. title: hamlet and date: 1983).

Once you have done an initial search, results can be narrowed down with the refined search. Click on the 'refine search' link underneath the search box and add the second term by which you would like to filter your results.

Phrase searching is also possible. Just put quotation marks (e.g. "art nouveau" )around the phrase you want to find.

Exclude words by typing NOT in capital letters, followed by the word you want to omit (e.g. Auguste NOT Renoir).

Other helpful search features in Europeana include:

• Auto completion: Start typing a search term. Europeana will suggest words that may match what you are thinking of. Press the down arrow to reach the term you want and hit 'enter' to search by that term.
• Spelling suggestions: Europeana will suggest an alternative spelling, if it seems a mistake has been made (e.g. a search for 'Dirwin' would prompt the suggestion 'Darwin')

Explore and Navigate

In addition to standard search options, Europeana offers alternative ways to explore and navigate through our millions of objects. Try discovering Europe's rich heritage with these tools by searching:

• Through time: The interactive Timeline lets you see items categorised by date. It is split into 3 sections, which can all be moved by clicking and dragging your mouse to browse through Europeana's collection. The top bar lets you quickly jump to the approximate time period you are interested in. Scan more slowly using the bars in the middle and at the bottom of the page. You can also enter a topic in the search box and see objects relating to the search term. For any given search, the Timeline shows the first 1,000 objects.

Results in Europeana

Europeana divides search results into 4 main categories: text, images, video and sound.

The types of items included in each section are:

• Texts : books, letters, archival papers, dissertations, poems, newspaper articles, facsimiles, manuscripts and music scores.
• Images : paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, pictures of museum objects, maps, graphic designs, plans and musical notation
• Video : films, news broadcasts and television programmes.
• Sound : music and spoken word frmo cylinders, tapes, discs and radio broadcasts.

Results can be displayed as a list , a table or on the timeline . You can also sort search results by language, country, date, provider or type, using the menu on the left of the results screen.

Further details of an object can be found by clicking on the item in the results list. To see the item in its fullest available form (i.e. you would like to read the book, view the full size image or watch a video), click the 'View in original context' link at the bottom of the page. This link takes you to the website of the organisation which has provided the item to Europeana.

Related content to the item you have chosen is shown to the left of the object display page.

My Europeana

You do not need to register to use Europeana. However, registering for a My Europeana account allows you to do more!

My Europeana users can:

• Save this search: Keep up to date on a particular topic in Europeana by saving a search, so you can easily perform it again in future.
• Add a tag: Label you favourite items in Europeana with tags that mean something to you. You can then see all objects you have tagged, sorted by the keywords you have chosen, in the My Europeana interface.
• Save to My Europeana: Store your favourite items for later viewing.

To save a search, add a tag or save an item, simply login to My Europeana and click on the relevant action from the menu on the left of the screen.

To view your saved items, searches and tags, click on My Europeana from the menu at the top of the screen and select either the 'saved items', 'saved searches' or 'saved tags' tab.