Go to the National Library home page
Go to Pictures Catalogue home page   search  Advanced Search  Browse Terms
 
Detail from: Olive Cotton. I’m a whale. ca. 1965. gelatin silver photograph 29.8 x 38 cm. P1682 Detail from: Byram Mansell. Pottery dish presented to Dame Mary Gilmore on her 91st birthday. ceramic 28.4 cm diameter. A40005550 Detail from: Bryan Kneale b. 1930. Portrait of Rex de C. Nan Kivell.  oil on composition board 127 x 71.2 cm. Pic T448 NK9530 Detail from: Lucien Henry. Waratah. oil on card 28.7 x 18.6 cm. R9737

Search the Pictures Catalogue

If your search found no results

Things to try:

  • Reduce the number of terms you are searching on e.g. try instead of

  • If you are searching a subject, repeat your search, using plural rather than singular e.g. rather than
  • Use the LINKS option in the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen to try another image source such as PictureAustralia or Timeframes.

  • Contact Us. There are many items in the Pictures Collection which are not listed on this database. If you are looking for pictures of any significant Australian event, person, or aspect of Australian society, we may have a picture so contact us with your specific inquiry.

  • Avoid searching on general words like 'Australia', 'picture' or 'birds' ; try more specific words such as 'Sydney harbour bridge' or 'kookaburra'

If your search found too many results :

Things to try:

  • Increase the number of words you are searching on e.g. if you are looking for pictures of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, type rather than just

  • Repeat your search, selecting any appropriate option in the dropdown box
    other than 'All words'. e.g. select 'Subject":
dropdown box with subject selected
  • Contact Us. We are happy to advise on ways to search.

Search Syntax

All of the search options provided through the Search or Advanced Search forms are keyword searches. Words used in these searches can be input in any order. For example a search using the words 'burke wills' or 'wills burke' will retrieve the same results. Records will only be retrieved if all of the words used in the search are found and if they are in the same Pictures Catalogue entry.

You can use capitals or punctuation - or not - as you prefer. The Pictures Catalogue converts all input to lower case and replaces punctuation (including hyphens) with a space:

S. T. Gill = s t gill

Wallace-Crabbe = wallace crabbe

There is one exception: the apostrophe in words like O'Connor must be included for a match to occur.

However some names in the Pictures catalogue include initials which do not operate as above as for 'S T Gill', eg J.C. Williamson Collection. There is no rule for successful searches involving initials. To find all the J.C. Williamson material you need to search on 'J.C. Williamson' ie without a space between the initials.

The best general strategy, if you think you have not found as many items as you expected, is to try the search both ways, ie 'A A NAME' and then 'A.A. Name' , or to search using terms that are full words rather than initials.


Search Options

Whole Catalogue

When you search the Whole catalogue your search will retrieve all entries listed in the Pictures Catalogue that matched your search. This includes all pictures and collections of pictures that have been listed in the catalogue regardless of whether online images are available.

If you do not change any settings on the Search or Advanced Search page, your search will automatically be a Whole Catalogue search.

Online Images

Using this option allows you to restrict your search so that you only retrieve items that have images that can be viewed directly online. You can select this option on the Search page by positioning the arrow on the corresponding radio button and clicking the mouse button; or on the Advanced Search page by selection Online Images from the drop-down list at the top of the search form.

Collections
(advanced search only)

Allows you to restrict your search so that only entries that have been described as collections are retrieved.

A collection entry is an entry that describes a group of items that are closely related. For example, a set of photographs of a particular event, or an album of pictures. In the Pictures Catalogue a collection may also be an entry that describes an object or a picture where more than one image is needed to portray that object or picture. For example, images depicting the front and back of a medallion; or the set of photographs forming a panorama.

Title or Creator

A search using the Title or Creator option will retrieve entries that contained a match for your search word(s) if they were contained in either the Title field or the Creator field or in a combination of both.

Creator
(advanced search only)

Allows you to restrict the entries that will be retrieved by your search to entries that contained your search word in the Creator field.

Title
(advanced search only)

Will only retrieve entries that contained your search word(s) in the Title field.

Subject

A search using the subject option will retrieve entries that contained your search word(s) in any of the subject headings that were assigned to the item or collection.

Name

A search using the Name option will retrieve entries that contain your search word(s) in a combination of the Creator Field and Names Field.

Number

This option can be used to find an entry or a collection and its associated items using one of the numbers associated with the entry:

  • Persistent Identifier -
    For example: nla.pic-an2268291
  • Immutable - the identifier originally assigned to the entry in the Kinetica database
    For example: 2268291
  • If you wish to search by Voyager number eg nla.pic-vn 3085551 -- it is necessary to type in the 'vn' as well as the number in an 'all words' search

Series

A search using the series option will retrieve entries for items or collections that have a theme in common and where this theme has been included as a series within each of the related entries. For example: Rex Nan Kivell collection

Format
(advanced search only)

Using this search allows you to retrieve all pictures or objects that have been described as belonging to a particular category (eg: watercolour, painting, photograph, poster, postcard, medal, figurine, etc.), or are of a particular type within a category (for example: terracotta, glass negative, bronze, pencil, sepia, etc.)

Limiting your search by date
(advanced search only)

You can also use the advanced search form to restrict your search to entries added to the Pictures Catalogue or modified before, after or on a specified date. Use the dropdown box lists to specify the date range to search and input the year and (optionally) the month in the boxes provided.

NB date here relates to the entry itself and not the date or dates that may be associated with the picture or collection being described.

Date entry added: is 2001 06 - entries that were added to the Pictures Catalogue during June 2001

Date entry added: before 2001 06 - entries that were added to the Pictures Catalogue prior to June 2001.

Date entry added: after 2001 06 - entries that were added to the Pictures Catalogue at any time since June 2001.

Call Number
(advanced search only)

A search on Call Number will retrieve an entry or entries that contain the word or term matching the word or term you entered. e.g NK11444 will retrieve all items that include NK11444 in the Call Number field.


Viewing Results

At the top of the search result screen you will find a summary of the search results:

Your search is on Whole Catalogue: Creator or Title
Search words: ellis rowan
Displaying records 1-15 of 734

This means that 734 entries were retrieved and this page is displaying the first 15 records.

Your search is on Online Images: Creator or Title
Search words: monet
Sorry, the Pictures Catalogue did not find any images to match your search terms

This means that there were no entries in the Pictures Catalogue containing the word monet in the Title Field or in the Creator Field

If your search retrieved only one entry, you will be taken directly to details about the item with a large version of the image.

The information recorded about each entry is sufficient to identify the item or collection and includes the Creator, the Title of the entry, the physical details of the item or collection and the Persistent Identifier (ie nla.pic 'number' or nla.pic-vn 'number' )for the item or collection.

If there is an online image for an item, a small version (called a thumbnail) will display above the entry details. If the entry is for a collection of items, the first thumbnail image will be displayed with the collection record. If you link to Full record all the details will be provided.

Also included in the brief display are three links: More Information, Order and email .

The More Information link takes you directly to details about the item with a large version of the image.

If you wish to purchase a copy of the image, use the Order link. This will open a new window in the browser with an order form. You can also link to this order form from the detail page for the image.

You may Email the image to yourself or another person if you wish for research and study purposes.

 

Advanced Search

Select the category of entries that you wish to search by selecting the option from the dropdown list. In addition to options for searching the Whole Catalogue or Online Images only, the Advanced Search has an additional category of Collections. See under Search options for further information about each of these categories.

The advanced search enables you to perform more complex searches. You can combine up to three sets of search words using the Boolean operators 'AND', 'OR' or 'AND NOT'. Type in the word or words you want to find in each input box and specify the field you wish to search and how you want the searches to be combined by making selections from the dropdown lists.

For example, the following search would retrieve entries for oil paintings and watercolours that had Canberra as a word in one of the subject headings assigned to the entry.


Browse Terms

Use this screen if you are not sure of a correct term, eg spelling of an artist's name.

The Australian painter Conrad Martens is often mis-spelled as Conrad Martins. If you are not sure if his name was Martins, Martens or Martons, you can :

Select Creator,
Type in the characters Mart,
Select Browse
and you will see a list of artists and photographers that contains a name that begins with Mart.

If one of the creators listed on the page sounds like the artist you are looking for, follow the List link to the left of the name, and you will be shown a list of works by this person.

Example: Not sure of a subject term?

You may be looking for pictures of miners, but are not sure of the subject term used in this database. Is it Miner, Miners, Gold miners, Mining workers?

Select Subject,
Type in the word miner,
Select Browse
and you will see a list of subject terms to do with miners.

If one of the terms in the list is the subject term you are looking for, follow the List link to the left of the term, and you will be shown a list of works about that subject.

Contact Us. We are happy to advise on ways to browse.


Ordering Images from the Pictures Catalogue

You may download, save or print images from the Picture Catalogue for private research and study purposes.

Where copyright permits, you may also order copies of images you have located. You can order single images as you find them by selecting the Order option linked to each image and completing the order form. Once you have completed the form online please submit it electronically.

If you need to order a number of images you may wish to use our standard paper-based order form or the PDF version of this form located online at: http://www.nla.gov.au/pict/howtopic.html

Or please contact us and we will fax or post you a copy of the order form.

A Permission to publish form is not required if you have completed an online Copies Direct order form. However if you require a permission form as a separate form please see Copyright and Reproduction page, or the link beneath every image in the Pictures catalogue.

Go to Frequently Asked Questions

 
  HOME ABOUT SEARCH ADVANCED SEARCH BROWSE TERMS EXPLORE HELP LINKS CONTACT US
 

Go to National Library home page