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Foreword
Introduction
Manuscripts
Oral Histories
Pictures
Name Index
Subject Index
Advanced Search
Search by region

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This page describes how you may search and browse Mura Gadi and what results to expect:

  1. Searching Mura Gadi
  2. Browsing Mura Gadi
  3. Viewing results
  4. Copyright issues
  5. Quick Tips

Searching Mura Gadi

Searching Mura Gadi is simple. From any page choose one of the available search options: Search, Advanced Search, Search by Region. You may also opt to search using the Name or Subject Indexes.

The search options are listed on the left of each page, with the exception of the home page where they appear in the centre and right of the screen. At any point, the browser's back button will return you to the previous screen.

If you cannot find the information you require, try the Quick Tips or Contact Us. For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.

Search

To perform a standard Search, enter one or more words (or numbers) in the 'Search' box provided, then click on the Search button. The search engine will conduct a keyword search and retrieve those records that contain a match for your search terms in any part of the entry.

An entry will only be retrieved if all of the words in a search occur in the same record, in any order. When using this search option, avoid using alone very commonly used words in Mura Gadi such as Aboriginal, Aborigines, Australia and Australian – or use them in combination with other words. If you are unsure of which search terms to use, consider browsing the Name and Subject Indexes as a starting point. For an explanation on viewing entries, go to Viewing Results.

Search Syntax

All of the search options provided through Mura Gadi search fields are keyword searches. Words used in these searches can be input in any order. For example, a search using the words 'message sticks' or 'sticks message' 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 Mura Gadi record.

Words can be of any length, including single letters, and may be truncated using the operator '%' – for example, 'fish%' to search for fishing and fisherman. However, you may receive a database timed out message if you search on single letters or very common words such as 'and', 'or' or 'the' without combining them with other words. The search is non-case sensitive and you can use capitals or punctuation - or not - as you prefer. Mura Gadi converts all input to lower case and replaces punctuation (including hyphens) with a space:

S.T. Gill = s t gill, Adam-Smith = adam smith

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

Personal or family names

When searching for personal or family names, use as many words as are needed to produce a manageable Result Set. For more common names, also use one or more of the person's given names, surname or initials – for example Jack Tjakamarra, Rhys Maengwyn Jones, J.A. Thomas.

If you are uncertain of the full form of a name, you can browse the Name Index to see how the name has been recorded and to identify variant forms. For example – Truganini, also known as Trugernanner, Trucanini and 'Lalla Rookh'.

Organisation names

When searching for organisational names, use the most significant words from the name of the organisation. Commonly used words such as association, committee, Australia and Australian should be omitted from the search where possible, or used in combination with more specific terms from the name of the organisation. Words that are frequently abbreviated such as department (dept), company (co) or limited (ltd) should be omitted to ensure that variant forms of the same name are retrieved. Also try alternative forms of the organisation's name and acronyms – for example, look under both Torres Strait Islander Independence Movement and Magani Malu Kes, National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee and NAIDOC. If you are uncertain of the correct form of the name, you can browse the Name Index to see how the name has been recorded.

If you cannot find the information you require, try the Quick Tips or Contact Us. For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search page offers a number of additional retrieval options for the performance of more complex searches. You can combine up to three sets of search words using combinations of the Boolean operators 'AND', 'OR' or 'AND NOT'.

When using the Advanced Search form only select the options that are relevant to you. Leave the other options blank or at the default. The Search button submits the search, Reset removes all previous input.

To perform an Advanced Search, type in the word or words you want to find in each input box. Then specify the field or fields you wish to search, and how you want the searches to be combined by making selections from the drop-down lists. The available search options in the drop-down lists are:

Search options

Any word Searches for matching keywords in any field
Name Searches for matching keywords in Personal, Corporate and Geographical name fields
Subject Searches for matching keywords in any of the Subject headings that were assigned to the item or collection

You can also use the Advanced Search form to restrict a search by collection format (Manuscripts, Oral Histories, Pictures), or to a specified date or date range. The available limits are:

Limits

Collection Limits search by one or more collections (Manuscript, Oral Histories or Pictures)
Date Limits by date or date range of material

To limit your search to one or two specific collections, click on the relevant box or boxes next to Manuscripts, Oral Histories, Pictures.

To specify the date range type the year or years in the From and to boxes. Use whole years only – for example From: 1867 to: 1911. To retrieve items for a single year, it is also necessary to enter the year in the From and to boxes.

If you cannot find the information you require, try the Quick Tips or Contact Us. For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.

Search by region

Using the Map Search form, select a State or Territory to search on by clicking on the corresponding region on the map of Australia. The system will retrieve all entries which have been assigned a geographical location for the nominated area in the Names field of the record.

The standard Search and Advanced Search options provide alternative approaches to finding geographical names in Mura Gadi. To identify materials associated with places or regions at a more specific level than State or Territory – for example, Victoria River (NT) - use the standard Search and Advanced Search functions.

If you cannot find the information you require, try the Quick Tips or Contact Us. For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.

Browsing Mura Gadi

The browse function enables you to browse selected Mura Gadi indexes if you are not sure which search terms or spellings to use, or if you wish to gain a general view of the types of materials described in the catalogue. Mura Gadi may be browsed by Name or Subject, either independently, or to complement a keyword search.

Name Index

The Name Index is an alphabetically arranged list of personal, family, organisational, geographical and other proper names, including the names of Aboriginal communities, language groups, events, movements and legislation. For example - Jabirrjabirr people (WA), Dharawal language, Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA), Aboriginal Sunday, Jindyworobak Movement. Names have been established in accordance with standard cataloguing practice, and the index can be browsed in order to identify the correct form of heading.

The index includes names responsible for the creation of the material described, as well as those with secondary responsibility, such as a correspondent in a collection of letters, or a subject in the case of a portrait.

To browse the Name Index, select the applicable letter from the alphabet bar at the top of the page.

[ A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z ]

At the page for the selected letter, browse up and down the list of headings until you locate the required name. To link to records which include this name in the entry, click on the selected heading.

For example – Not sure if an artist's name is Richard Brown or Browne? Position cursor on letter | B | and select. Scan down the list of retrieved terms to select the correct heading: Browne, Richard (1776-1824)

The standard Search and Advanced Search options provide alternative approaches to finding names indexed in Mura Gadi.

Subject Index

The Subject search option enables you to browse Mura Gadi by the topics which have been allocated to materials in the catalogue. Subject terms are derived from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander thesaurus (Canberra : National Library of Australia, 1997). Examples of the many topics indexed in Mura Gadi include: Aboriginal law, Birth, Ethnomusicology, Farming, Genealogy, Kinship systems, Military service, Pearling, Scarred trees, Trackers. It is important to note that not all items in Mura Gadi have been assigned topical headings.

To browse the Subject Index, select the applicable letter from the alphabet bar at the top of the page.

[ A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z ]

At the page for the selected letter, browse up and down the list of topics until you locate the required name. To link to records which include this name in the entry, click on the selected topic.

The standard Search and Advanced Search options provide alternative approaches to finding subjects indexed in Mura Gadi.

If you cannot find the information you require, try the Quick Tips or Contact Us. For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.

Viewing Results

A search of Mura Gadi will initially result in one of three outcomes: a full record display, a list of brief records, or an unsuccessful search message.

Full record display

If only one entry is found to match your search query, the Result Set will be a full record display.

Every item in Mura Gadi has a full entry, the content of which will vary slightly according to whether the record describes a manuscript, oral history or picture. A screen shot of a Pictures Entry is below:

Screen shot of Full record display for a Pictures Entry

Most of the fields are common to all formats, and may include the following elements:

Pictures Entry

Creator: Unknown artist

Title: [Plaques of Truganini and King Billy]

Date: c.1880

Extent: 2 plaques: plaster overpainted

Size: height 12.3 cm

Call number: PIC OBJ A40005437 NK10,851

Short description: Two plaster portrait plaques of the heads of Truganini and William Lanney (or 'King Billy') presumably intended as a pair. Crafted by moulds and then overpainted. The casts have...

Significance: William Lanney or 'King Billy' was from the Wybalenna and Oyster Cove settlements in Tasmania. When discovered by G.A. Robinson...

Biographical/Historical Note: The artist of these plaques is unknown, however they have a sticker on them saying that they were made by 'Donald Mou... of Hobart'...

Index terms: Names: Lanney, William ('King Billy') (1834-1869); Tasmania (Trowunna); Truganini (Trugernanner, Trucanini, 'Lalla Rookh') (1803-1876); Woolley, Charles Alfred (1834-1922)

Subjects: Photography 19th century; Portraits, 19th century

References: Horton, David (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia...
Kerr, Joan (ed.), Dictionary of Australian artists...
Ryan, Lyndall, The Aboriginal Tasmanians...

Your comments | Using this material

When the whole entry is displayed, all the fields that have been included in the record will appear on the screen, but fields that do not include any information are suppressed from display. All of the names and subjects listed under Index Terms are searchable links and can be used to locate other materials relating to the selected heading.

Use the Your comments link at the foot of the entry to send us your comments or queries. Select the Using this material link to find out how to access and request specific items.

Digital images

If there is an online image relating to a Mura Gadi record, a small version (called a thumbnail) will display in the full record display. To view the image in greater detail, place the cursor on the thumbnail and click to enlarge.

Collection entry

A collection entry is an entry that describes a group of items that are closely related or that may have been created as part of a project. In such cases, Mura Gadi provides searchable links from the parent record for the collection, to each of its component entries (known as child entries). For Oral Histories, the child entries for each collection are listed in the parent record under the heading Component parts; Pictures are listed individually under the parent record. Click on a relevant child link to be taken to a full entry display for the chosen record.

Brief record display

If more than one entry is found, the Result Set will be a list of brief records which match your search query. Mura Gadi search results are sorted alphabetically by creator name. Entries that do not include a creator field file at the end of the alphabetical sequence, whilst Unknown creators file under U.

At the top of the Results Set page you will find a summary of the search results, for example:

Displaying 6 records from your search on Any word: 'kakadu'

An icon which indicates the form of the material precedes each brief record: Text (for Manuscripts), Image (for Pictures), or Sound (for Oral Histories). Please note that audio is not yet available through the Mura Gadi site. We hope to make some Oral History recordings available in the future.

Sound Anderson, Ian Philip Smith (1965-). [Interview with Dr Ian Anderson]. 29 Nov. 1995. Part of: Various interviewees. Seven Years On: Continuing Life Histories of Aboriginal Leaders Oral History Project. 1995-2002.

TextBatman, John (1801-1839). Diary. 3 March to 30 September 1830.

ImageBeattie, John Watt. Coal tribe last of the race. c.1858 (copied c.1893). Part of: Kerry, Charles Henry (1858-1928) and Beattie, John Watt (1859-1930). [Tasmanian, New South Wales and Queensland Aborigines]. 1866-1891.

The information recorded in the brief record is sufficient to identify the item and includes the creator name, title and date. If the entry is for an item that is part of a collection, the details displayed will include a brief citation for the collection entry, following the words Part of:. The citation will also provide a link to the collection entry. Click on the icon to view a full record display for the selected item.

Unsuccessful search messages

If your search has been unsuccessful, you will receive one of the following messages:

No query defined: You have forgotten to enter a search term. Type a search term in the box under Try Again, then click on the Search button to re-enter.

Database timed out: The search terms you have used are too broad for the search engine to retrieve a manageable result. To narrow your search, try again using more specific terms or combine with other terms.

Sorry, no records found: No entries were found using the combination of search terms you entered in the search box. For alternative strategies, try the Quick Tips listed on screen below the message.

Copyright issues

For general information about copyright relating to the National Library's web site, see the About this Site page.

For more specific information on copyright for Pictures, refer to the document Copyright in Pictures.

Contact the Manuscript or Petherick Reading Rooms for more information on copyright specific to these materials.

Quick tips

  • Check that the search term has been entered and is spelt correctly.
  • Try again with more general terms or fewer terms. Think of alternative terms; replace singular with plural and vice versa. Try truncating the search term using the operator '%' – for example, 'fish%' to search for fishing and fisherman.
  • Try browsing the Name Index for proper names or Subject Index for topics.
  • Use Advanced Search to 'OR' terms together.
  • Use Search by Region to search broadly by State or Territory.
  • If using Advanced Search, remove any search limits or use fewer search options. You can always add another search option if the Result Set is too large.
  • Check other resources listed on our Links page.
  • For books, periodicals and other publications try searching the Library's Catalogue.
  • Contact Us. There may be items of interest to your research in the National Library's collections that are not listed on this database. We are happy to advise on ways to search for other materials.
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