People's Network Discover
help
Search
- How does the search work?
- What search term should I use?
- How can I improve the results I find?
- What is the detailed search?
Personalisation
- What is personalisation?
- How do I personalise the news that appears on my homepage?
- How do I personalise the Web Links that appear on my homepage?
General
How does the search work?
The search on Discover finds: items from a range of library, museum and archives (sometimes these include images or audio files and sometimes it is information about collections as a whole).
Searching is easy, just enter your search term and click go (or press "enter"). Discover will display a list of matching results. Click on the title to view more information about a particular resource. You can then visit the website of the item to find out more about it, look at other results, or search again for something else.
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What search term should I use?
It's often best to start by picking a single word. For example, if you are interested in finding out about the history of your town, you could start by entering the name of your town for example "Nottingham" and clicking "go".
It can be useful to enter more words to help narrow down your search. For example, if you are only interested in a particular place in or near your town like "Sherwood Forest", you could try "Sherwood Forest" or "Sherwood nottingham".
It doesn't matter whether you use capital letters or not, the Discover search treats "forest", "Forest" and even "fOrEsT" as the same word.
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How can I improve the results I find?
If you don't find the results you are expecting:
- try using fewer words (e.g. "cricket" instead of "cricket teams", or "Sheffield" instead of "information about the history of Sheffield"
- try using related terms (e.g. "advert" or "advertising" instead of "marketing")
- try using the detailed search
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What is the detailed search?
The detailed search page allows you to more precisely state what you are searching for. There are a number of different options to search by, and these can be used in combination with each other. The detailed search will try to find results that match all of the options you use, with the "Filter by" option letting you search for items from a single collection.
If you're having trouble finding the information you need or if you'd just prefer to ask someone directly, you could try using our Enquire service. Enquire instantly connects you to library staff trained to help you find answers to your questions. Best of all the service is free and anyone can use it at any time! To find out more about Enquire, visit the Enquire homepage.
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What is personalisation?
You can personalise Discover, so that the news and Web Links that are of most interest to you appear on your homepage.
In order to personalise Discover you will need to join. Joining is free and open to anyone. Your details will only be used for the purpose for which you have provided them and will not be added to a mailing list or used for any other purpose without your consent. For more information see our privacy policy.
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How do I personalise the news that appears on my homepage?
If you have not already done so, you will need to join and then sign-in (follow the links in the left-hand menu).
Once you have signed-in, a "Personalise" link will appear in the left-hand menu. Click on this link, and you will be presented with the personalise news page. Select which news sources you are interested in by ticking the boxes next to the names. Then click the update button at the bottom of the list to save your choices.
The next time you look at your Discover homepage, the 3 top headlines from each of your selected news sources will be displayed.
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How do I personalise the Web Links that appear on my homepage?
If you have not already done so, you will need to join and then sign-in (follow the links in the left-hand menu).
Once you have signed-in, a "Personalise" link will appear in the left-hand menu. Click on this link, and you will be presented with the personalise news page. Follow the link to personalise Web Links.
The personalise Web Links page allows you to select the topics that interest you. The latest links to websites relating to those topics will be displayed in the Web Links box on your Discover homepage.
On the personalise Web Links page you will see a list of broad topics. Clicking on one of those will display a list of sub-topics, and you just need to tick the subjects that interest you. There's no "update" or "save" button on the form because your settings are saved automatically when you tick the boxes.
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What are Web Links?
Web Links are a list of useful websites on a range of topics. They have been selected by people working in libraries to help you quickly find information on a range of subjects.
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Who provides the content for Discover?
Content for Discover will keep growing as public libraries continue to include more useful resources for you and more and more content is made available in the right way.
Currently...
News is provided by: BBC News, 24 Hour Museum.
Web Links: provided by South Yorkshire libraries, as part of ITforMe project (www.itforme.org.uk).
Cultural sector item records (for the Discover search)
- Devon ETCHED - http://www.devon.gov.uk/etched
- Picture the Past - http://www.picturethepast.org.uk
- Sense of Place South East - http://www.sopse.org.uk
- Lambeth Landmark - http://www.lambethlandmark.com
- Commanet: the community archive network - http://www.commanet.org
- Folk Archive Resource North East - http://www.folknortheast.com
- Dorset Coast Digital Archive - http://www.dcda.org.uk
- Sense of Place Suffolk - http://www.senseofplacesuffolk.co.uk
- Collect Britain - http://www.collectbritain.co.uk
- Portable Antiques Scheme - http://www.finds.org.uk
- Fitzwilliam Museum - http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
- English Heritage: ViewFinder http://viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk
- Manchester City Galleries: http://www.manchestergalleries.org.uk
Cultural sector collection records (for the Discover search)
- Cornucopia database of records of physical collection in Museums, Libraries and Archives in UK
- MICHAEL database of UK cultural sector digital collections (which includes Nof Digi EnrichUK projects)
"Find a library" records are provided by public libraries as part of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's Netbase survey.
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