The catalog includes information on each object's date, creator,
format, source, and location at its original source. This information
is listed on the Catalog Cards. Text documents include an excerpt and
a link to the full document. In full documents, the numbers on the
left refer to paragraph numbers. Visual stills include a small image,
any original captions or marks, and a link to an enlargement.
People use internet resources in idiosyncratic ways. Use the tools
that work for you. The following is intended as guidance for all
users. In many ways, online materials are organized like a physical
library. The principle difference is that online, users can manipulate
searches and results quickly and efficiently.
What is in your collections?
Currently, materials on the history of disability in the United States
are collected as either text documents or visual stills. When you do a
Library Search and "ALL" is in the "Collections" box, you will search
both categories of materials. If you wish to explore only documents or
visuals stills, there is a pull-down menu to the right of "Collections"
that allows you to choose a specific collection.
How do I do a Basic Search?
A Basic Search is a keyword search. Separate keywords with a comma.
The Library Help provides a Keyword List that shows what terms we
have used to describe the materials in the collections. For example,
if you enter "deaf, schools,
sign language" as keywords, you will find any materials associated
with schools for the deaf that taught sign language.
What are keywords? How can I use them to find what I want?
Keywords are the words we believe best describes a document or visual
still. You can see our Keyword List by clicking on Keywords under Library
Help. Common variants, including plural forms, of the keywords will
also work. Keywords include Proper Names. For example, searching
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt" or "FDR" will provide the same results.
Note that "male" and "female" will work as keywords even though they
do not appear on the Catalog Cards.
What can I do with an Advanced Search?
An Advanced Search allows you to look for materials based
on Keywords as well as
Sources, Formats, and Dates. You do not have to fill all those fields
to do an Advanced Search.
What is the difference between the Library Search functions
on the Library navigation menu and the Site Search tab on the
horizontal navigation bar at the top of each page?
When you use Search or Browse tools from inside the Library's
navigation menu, you will be exploring the cataloged Documents and
Visual Stills Collections held within the Library.
Site Search allows you to find a specific
word or phrase anywhere in the Disability History Museum site.
Results may come from the Library, Museum, and/or
Education portions of the site.
What is the Browse Directory?
The Browse Directory lets you sort the Library's collections by
subject (keyword), by decade, by a specific format, and by a source.
From the Browse Directory you can also enter the Browse Detail.
What is the Browse Detail?
The Browse Detail page organizes the collections into presorted categories
that combine certain keywords. It combines the thematic
heading (for example "advocacy") with a subcategory (for example
"activists"). Note that "institutions" refers to bricks-and-mortar
buildings while "organizations" refers to associations of people.
How can I manipulate my search results?
Your search results will provide, from left to right, an artifact title,
its date, its original source, whether it is a document or a visual
still, and an object. You can click on date, source, or format, and
the results will be sorted by that criterion in alpha-numeric order.
What is the difference between an "artifact" and an
"object"?
An artifact and an object are sometimes the same thing. Other
artifacts contain numerous objects. For example, one artifact can be a
book. It is made up text and various illustrations. Each part of the
book is referred to as an object. On search results, objects from the
same artifact are listed together by artifact title. Each object is
assigned a search results item number however. At the bottom of
appropriate Catalog Cards, links to all the objects associated with an
artifact are listed.
What issues of language arise from the historical study of
disability?
The use of language, or nomenclature, to describe disability has
changed tremendously over the past two centuries. Some of the past
usages are offensive and degrading. They should be avoided in
contemporary language. In cataloging historical materials, however,
these terms are essential to recover past experiences and ideologies.
When a source uses a historical term, we use that term as a keyword.
Historical terms apply only to the period in which an artifact was
created and will not be used for artifacts created after that usage
has gone into deserved oblivion.
