Search improvements
15 results found
-
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.
-
Mark search results I have already viewed so it is more obvious
Allow a facility for the system to "remember" which pages I have previously looked at. By ticking that page, or some other marking.
48 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
Great suggestion. If you are signed in, the system does know somewhere what you have already viewed, so in theory this is feasible…..
-
Jump to next/previous instance of search term within a page
Provide a next/previous buttons to enable to skip from an occurrence of a search term in a page to the next/previous occurrence of the search term. The move would focus on the search term and size to display just the column involved and a few lines around the search term.
This will be very useful on images where most of the page is part of a single article.
3 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
Good suggestion. We will investigate how hard this will be to do.
-
search terms to be within the same article
Option to use search words where all words are only found in the same article and not on the whole page
19 votes -
Search "Edit Article Text" and "Show Article Text"
Provide a search function in the "Edit Article Text" and in the "Show Article Text" so you can find the text you are interested in. This is especially needed on long articles as it it often difficult to find the text that you require.
4 votes -
Search within page / edition being viewed
Search within page.
25 votes -
Wildcards
I would love to be able to use wildcards. It's so difficult to guess what the mangled version of a name would be.
41 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
We are looking into different ways that we could improve wildcarding at the moment
-
BETTER SEARCHES (accuracy, control & operators)
Have an advanced search like Google Advanced. When searching for 'all these words' that should mean that all of those words are in the article not just one of them.
Thanks64 votes -
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 -
Filter by more than one region
Filter results by more than one region. Events in the Southeast are likely to be in Southeast or London Papers
13 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
We will look into the feasibility of this – it’s a good suggestion
-
Reward Manual Corrections to OCR-generated flaws
There is little incentive to repair obvious flaws in OCR-generated plaintext other than the satisfaction of having done so. Awarding concessionary access to those willing to contribute such exacting labours would improve the accumulated corpus for everyone and render more accurate the search function -- which depends exclusively upon the plaintext version.
32 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
We will think about this.
-
Downloaded PDFs searchable
The OCR - warts and all! - enables pages to be found - but when the PDF is downloaded it is just an image with no underlying OCR layer. Can the OCR not be included in the PDF?
23 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
We’ll find out how hard this is to do
-
A preview for the search results without having to go into the full page
It would be much better if you could hover over an entry after a search and have a small preview pop up showing the context of the match to your search criteria. This would be highly effective in reducing the number of "red herring" matches that you often have to go through.
57 votes -
Remember my 'Sort results by' choice
I would like 'Sort results by' to be 'sticky'. I nearly always select 'Date (earliest)' but have to keep resetting after it goes back to 'Relevance'
Why is this text entry box only postage stamp size?
13 votes -
Email me when you add new articles that match what I've searched for
Like Genes Reunited's Hot Matches. I want to be told when you add something useful for me, so I don't have to try to find it myself.
29 votesOpen - Under review ·AdminThe British Newspaper Archive
(Head of Data Development, The British Newspaper Archive)
responded
We will take a look a the feasibility of this – it is quite an Engineering challenge but we already have some pilot projects underway that may help with this.
- Don't see your idea?