Search Help

Welcome to the VITAL Access Portal. Here’s how to get started finding documents, images, video, and other objects in the repository.

Basic Keyword Search

To do a simple keyword search of the repository,

• Type your search term(s) in the blank text box, and then click the Search button.

Hints:

• If you type more than one search term, the system assumes there is an AND between the terms and will find only objects that have both terms in indexed fields.
• You can search using a phrase, which must be in quotation marks, for example, “road warriors.”
• You can use wildcards in your search. A question mark (?) represents a single wildcard character, and an asterisk (*) represents one or more wildcard characters.

Other Searches You Can Do

To see a table of ALL the objects in the repository sorted by created date,

• Click the Show All link.

To see the titles only of ALL the objects in the repository sorted alphabetically,

• Click the Browse links in the menu bar. You can choose to browse by other indexes such as author, subject, and collections.

To do a precise keyword search using multiple terms and filters such as date range,

• Click the Advanced Search link in the menu bar.

To do a keyword search of parent collections in the repository,

1. Click the Advanced Search link in the menu bar.
2. On the resulting Advanced Search screen, use the Search Collections option.