Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has just released its newest search tool, Collection SearchBETA, and it is inviting members of the public to try it out and provide feedback.
I usually don’t like my favourite websites to change their search engines, but after trying LAC’s new search engine, I think they’ve done a terrific job. It is very easy to use, and it doesn’t require the researcher to think like a software engineer. LAC has made the search engine for the average person and genealogist to use.
The biggest improvement is the ability to filter results. I especially like the ability to select dates in the left-hand margin.
Here are some of the new search capabilities:
- Refine your search more easily on the results page by using the tabs and the filters
- Order your results by relevance, title (A-Z / Z-A) or date (ascending or descending)
- It is now possible to adjust the number of results displayed on your results page (10, 25, 50 or 100 results)
- You can download a document with your search results with up to 1000 results in the following formats : HTML, PDF, CSV, XML, JSON
- You can print your search results
Not entirely perfect
Note that the search engine will not find everything available on LAC’s website. It does not seem to search through all the layers in every database. For example, it would be useful if a WWI personnel file appeared in the results when conducting a surname search. A search of my grandfather’s battalion during the First World War, however, easily produced the battalion’s war diaries.
I encourage you to test out the new search engine. Entering my last name, Dever, produced nothing useful, but searching for other family names uncovered interesting finds.
Send your feedback to bac.recherchecollectionsqr-collectionsearchqa.lac@canada.ca.
Thank you! On my first search, the new interface returned a great image of an old family shop in Montreal I’d never seen.
Thank you Gail. With my first search I found an 1893 petition to the Governor General, on behalf of my 3rd Great Grandfather Robert Sherlock, for financial aid related to his service as a Queen’s Ranger during the 1837/38 uprising.
It took 9 tries, but I did find some useful results. The results seemed to favour government records, so Orders in Council, memoranda, etc. I find that historically, results for Canadian Chinese names are rare (unless searching in a periodical for the Chinese market, e.g., The Chinese Times). I didn’t find anything for my family directly, but did for the FAN (friends, associates, neighbours), and 2 original, digitized documents from 1899 and 1900 concerning the Chinese Immigration Act, so consider it a big win.
Thanks so much for posting!