Search improvements
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...just better searching please.
Make the search better. I often search on a group of words and despite using the advanced search function and putting the phrase into the correct field it doesn't always work correctly.
12 votes -
Save queries for future use
I have been using the archive to carry out historical research. I would like to be able to save my query so that I can modify it from day to day - for example, I may only be interested in a particular date range and newspapers from a particular area so if I could store the query then it could act as a basis for searching for particular words or phrases without having to key in the dates and titles again.
12 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive (Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive) responded
We’ll take a look at this one – it’s on our list but low down at present.
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Marking and copying text
Why can't I mark text found on a page and copy it into a Word Doc? The NLA Trove system allows that here in Australia.
12 votes -
How about actually phrase searcihing!
Typing in "No Bombs" for 1979 brings up a series of rubbish. This isn't acceptable for a paid site. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search/results/1979-01-01/1979-12-31?basicsearch=%22no%20%2bbombs%22&exactsearch=true&retrievecountrycounts=false&sortorder=score
12 votes -
semantic search which recognises surnames, places etc
The use of "" does not filter to surname only i.e. Brakes search comes up with all references to brakes.
11 votesOpen - Being developed ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive (Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive) responded
We have had our first presentation back from one of the universities and we are prototyping an early version of this. However, this will be a long project!
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My Idea! Start again with a competent computer programmer.
These newspapers are a fantastic resource. People are paying good money to be frustrated by a site that is completely user unfriendly. The front page may look flashy and up to date but the so-called improvements are a retrograde step.
11 votes -
Improve date entry
Other newspaper archives have a better date entry system where you can type in the year and day and month default to 'Any Month' etc .
One feature that would need some programming work but would be very useful is if I enter the start date as 1850 then then the end date drop down list started at 1850. I might alternative be better if the drop down list worked opposite ways around i.e. start date at the earliest date available and end date started at the latest date available.
11 votesPending - For future development ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive (Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive) responded
We will add this to the list of things to be looked at – a great suggestion which will save time for customers
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Switch off boolean search operators
Advanced search should offer a way to turn off boolean search operators like AND and OR. I am searching for an exact phrase that contains the word 'and', and it gets turned into the operator AND every time, making it very tricky to search for this phrase.
10 votes -
A search option for just Day & Month - Year is Wildcard
I do Radio Programmes, and I wish to search for events that have happened on a day and a month.. You cannot search for this at the moment, which is very frustrating..
10 votes -
Allow "Next Page" and/or "Page Number Selection" to Full Screen
Unless I am missing something the only way to go to the "Next Page" in Full Screen View is to come out of that view
10 votes -
9 votes
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Obsolete Welsh County - Clwyd
The search facility only includes the obsolete county of Clwyd. The historical counties of flintshire and denbigh are ignored.
9 votes -
Fix the advanced searching
Advanced searching doesn't work at all. This is ridiculous. I can't find what I am after because the search results are complete garbage!
9 votes -
Highlight the text searched for in the original newspaper - i.e. don't make us have to attempt to read an entire page in order to find it.
Highlight the text searched for in the original newspaper - i.e. don't make us have to attempt to read an entire page of tiny text in order to find the term we searched for. This is what Newspapers.com does. Look at that website for tips on how to improve this one, searchwise. Look also at Trove for search tips to improve this. So far, this website is poor value.
9 votes -
Historic Counties
Search engine should be based on the historic counties using the post 1974 counties is confusing.
8 votes -
Provide technical feedback on a selected extract
Although there is provision to "add a comment" on a selected extract, there is no user-friendly invitation to add technical feedback. e.g. if the extract is illegible.
8 votes -
Better Search Tool
A better search tool is required. Today I have done an advances search for 1 street in a town and received almost 77,000 matches. There is no way all of these relate to the street and town I am searching for, the most relevant match relates to a birth in Cornwall whereas I'm looking for information on a street in a town in Scotland and it is impossible to wade through all of these matches.
8 votes -
A clearer navigation route to display individual copies
If one wants to view individual copies of a title, rather than conduct a word search, it's not at all obvious how to do this. There needs to be a top level button or text link saying something like: View Issues
8 votes -
Add a “negative bookmark” facility
When searching, you often find many copies of the same article or advert in different newspapers - and then spend some time choosing the best one to bookmark. It would be useful to be able to label the “rejected” ones so you know you have already looked at them. This could simply be a second type of bookmark in another colour, say. (Even better would be to then be able to exclude these articles from future searches.)
8 votes -
8 votes
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