Using the online catalogue

To search for WFSA material only in the online catalogue, you must choose ‘Wessex Film and Sound Archive’ in the field called Repository. This will provide access to catalogue descriptions at Collection level and to individual film and sound items within collections held by WFSA.

Whilst all WFSA holdings have been catalogued at Collection level, this is not yet the case for individual items, which only represent the video and audio copies available for research.

The amount of detail for items varies, from just a title, date and reference code, to a full summary description of the contents. We are working all the time to improve on this situation.

Tips on how to get the best out of searching for WFSA material

• All WFSA holdings in the online catalogue have a reference code which begins ‘AV’, e.g., AV100, AV93/1/V1, AV792/4/S1
• Collection level searches - choose the term ‘Collection’ from the drop down menu in the Record Type field, choose ‘Wessex Film and Sound Archive’ from the Repository field drop down menu, then either click on the Search button for an overall view of WFSA holdings, or type in additional search terms to focus on particular subjects
• Individual items within collections may be found by typing the reference code in the Finding No field, e.g., AV12, then clicking on the Search button
• Advanced searching at Collection level using the Narrow and Exclude buttons will only find catalogue entries at that level, whereas using the Widen button will also find individual items, not only within WFSA, but also Hampshire Record Office as a whole, unless ‘Wessex Film and Sound Archive’ is chosen from the Repository menu
• Use the asterisk * to aid general searches in the Any Text field, as terms used in the catalogue are not precise, e.g. ship* for anything on ships and shipping
• Common sense will be needed to distinguish cinefilms, video and sound recordings, as they cannot be separated through on-line searches. Cinefilm and video items, however, are given /V1 suffixes in their reference codes, whilst sound items are given /S1 suffixes. For example, AV6/M17/V1 is a film item, whereas AV6/M29/S1 is a sound item
• Oral history material is best retrieved at Collection level (choose that word from the Record Type menu), by typing the words ‘oral history’ in the Any Text field. Further searching can then be undertaken within each collection. Some items, however, form series within collections, so must be found by not choosing Collection in the level field when searching