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Finding Information

The Making of the Modern World offers today’s researchers and students the opportunity to explore topics and concepts quickly and accurately. With its easy-to-use interface, researchers can access a magnificent library of primary source materials, allowing concepts and facts to be retrieved and correlated in a manner unimaginable through traditional means.

Searching

Researchers can search through millions of pages of text and thousands of works using the power of the Internet. Users can employ a subject search or a keyword search and even a full-text search to access the information they seek in a fraction of the time previously spent on the research phase.

Basic Search

This search allows users to search the entire database for the presence of their desired term or terms from the full text of the database’s contents. Or users can choose to search for their desired term(s) by selecting from these options:

Keyword
Author
Title
Subject

Basic Searches also allow the opportunity to limit results to works published within a specified time period.

Advanced Search

This search option provides for even more specific results based upon the criteria researches provide using Boolean search functionality. Users can enter up to five terms and combine or exclude them from the following list of indexes:

Keyword
Subject
Author
Title
Full Text
Person as Subject
Geographic Subject
Front Matter
Main Text
Back-of-book Indexes
Publisher
Place of Publication
Source Library

The more information provided, the more specific the result. Users can also limit the Advanced Search results by the following criteria:

Year of Publication
Serials Only
Specific Serial Title
Language of Publication
Number of Pages
Works containing specific types of illustrations
Gale Document Number
MARC Record Number

Fuzzy Search

By using the Fuzzy Search functionality, results will also include near matches of the desired term(s). This is especially helpful to maximize results that may otherwise be overlooked due to variances in spelling between either time periods or place of publication (e.g. harbor, harbour).

Browse Authors

When a researcher employs this search, an alphabetical list of authors and authoring bodies is presented. A click on the desired author returns all the works in the database attributed to that author.

Browse Works

This search works in the same manner as a Browse Author search. Users can select a specific title from an alphabetical listing. All works attributed to that title are presented.

Search Results

Search results are presented as a list and may be sorted by author, title or date of publication. Included in the results' list are links to the work itself, the full citation, an eTable of Contents and (where applicable) a List of Illustrations. Clicking on the work's title in the citation will take the researcher directly to the facsimile image of the book's title page.

Once viewing a specific work, the user may navigate to any page of the work using the printed page number or using the eTable of Contents to jump to the start of a specific chapter or section of the book. If the user has conducted a full-text search, a list of relevant pages is provided that will link them to each page in the work that has a match for their search term. Pages or works may be marked for future use (course packs or reading lists) and the user may choose to print up to 50 pages of the work at a time.