Skip to content

Search improvements

← Help & Advice | Give us feedback | British Newspaper Archive

How can we improve the way you find and search our newspapers?

You've used all your votes and won't be able to post a new idea, but you can still search and comment on existing ideas.

There are two ways to get more votes:

  • When an admin closes an idea you've voted on, you'll get your votes back from that idea.
  • You can remove your votes from an open idea you support.
  • To see ideas you have already voted on, select the "My feedback" filter and select "My open ideas".
(thinking…)

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

If a similar idea already exists, you can support and comment on it.

If it doesn't exist, you can post your idea so others can support it.

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

  • Hot ideas
  • Top ideas
  • New ideas
  • My feedback

168 results found

  1. Need to improve the Search Facility. e.g. Known articles appearing in the NORTHERN ECHO cannot be located.

    Need to improve the Search Facility. e.g. Known articles appearing in the NORTHERN ECHO cannot be located.

    6 votes
    3 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  2. Allow restricting search to particular days of the week

    Restrict search to days of the week eg Monday so it would return Saturday football results.

    6 votes
    Open - Under review  ·  0 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  3. Search by title of article

    Enable the ability to search for a word in the article title. Most other newspaper archives have this really useful facility

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  4. Search options

    It might be difficult but I would like to see you introduce proximity searches, such as word x within so many words of word y.

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  5. starting location for "edit text"

    When I do a search the result is identified by a blue box. If I then choose to edit the text, quite often the editing box is at the start of the page and it takes quite a bit of effort to move it into the region of the blue boxed text.
    So, it is highly desirable that the editing box starts in the area of the text highlighted in the blue box.

    5 votes
    1 comment  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  6. Make drop-down list of bookmarks alphabetical

    When I try to assign an existing bookmark to a new article, the drop-down list is seemingly in random order (perhaps of date created) rather than alphabetical. This leads to endless scrolling and trying to find the right one - even if I can remember if it exists - and often the creation of similar duplicate bookmarks. Can the drop-down list be made to appear alphabetically, as it does in the side bar?

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  7. ability to correct or cancel a search name/word

    As I discover the correct spelling of my subject's name, I correct it by one letter and press Search. But when the entire list returns, the old name is still there, cluttering up the list. If I delete the name entirely, it still reappears. Please allow us to cancel or adjust permanently.

    5 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  8. Include all available pages in search

    In the refibe search > date panel some dates are not shown for some newspapers. However, the papers exist in the archive as they can be accessed by typing in the date and page number in the address bar. However, accessing the pages this way means it is not possible to download the pdf. Can you include all dates of available papers in the refine search section or allow downlaoding of papges acessed by typing date into address bar.

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  9. Searching results in multiple pages highlighted

    It is very frustrating when I search for some thing and the results flag up pages 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 etc in the one newspaper. Wading through every page to find what the summary result indicates 'should' be there takes hours. The highlighted search terms are very small and not that obvious. A tiny blue box on a large page is very hard to find sometimes.

    4 votes
    2 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  10. Stop automatically changing and to AND

    The word 'and' forms part of many phrases and names. If I am searching for the Crown and Thistle PH I am only interested in the phrase, not every page that contains both words.

    4 votes
    2 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  11. Sorting results by date

    Right now, one can sort by date, but only most recent to oldest. I normally want to sort from oldest to most recent, but can't tell how to do it or if it can be done. Thanks.

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  12. By unscrambling the articles otherwise the site is rubbish and will remain rubbish

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  13. Pages are best copied if scanned, when flat.

    If one does not have the newspaper flat on the scanner, the image will blur and may not be copied at all. This certainly happened when the London Morning Post of October 30, 1856, was scanned. About half an inch of the inside columns was lost.

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  14. I love cherry picking!!!!

    Yes, I love cherries and I love to cherry-pick. On the advanced search options - yes, you can select precise dates and a region etc and you can search by a particular title. But you don't get the option of cherry-picking more than one title at a time. Thus if I narrow it down to London papers I'm gonna get a lot of hits. What if I only want to look at 5 particular London titles (because, for example, they have good coverage of a particular borough or neighbourhood )....other than search all five titles one at a time....I can't! …

    4 votes
    2 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  15. Add a byline search for those tracking a particular journalist or author writing for a newspaper.

    4 votes
    0 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  16. Edition search

    I am looking for an article in the Western Gazette, published Friday 12 December 1902 and was pleased to find it listed on your website. However, having paid my subscription and started to look at the pages, I discovered that this is the "Bournemouth, Hants & E.Dorset Edition", which I soon realised is of no use to me as the article I am looking for relates to Yeovil. Your search criteria do not specify the Edition and the results are therefore inaccurate and misleading, so I have wasted my time and money.

    4 votes
    0 comments  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  17. A charge to view !.....

    We should not have to pay to view, New Zealand has Paperspast all free to view, so come on UK get with the times

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  18. Newport & Market Drayton Advertiser

    You have put it in the wrong county. it should be Shropshire - not isle of Wight

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Search  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  19. Searching for family links in Largs, Scotland. But I keep getting results on the word "large" even when I use exact search

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  20. Is there a way to report bad images ?

    I should love a better image of The Morning Post 26 Jan 1904 page 5. The Munro story is unknown elsewhere and I cannot read most of this image.

    4 votes
    0 comments  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?
1 2 3 5 7 8 9
  • Don't see your idea?

Search improvements

Categories

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)