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Search Our Collections is ISAC's public Online Collections Search — a single place to discover more than one million records from across the Institute, including the Library (Research Archives Library, with more than 580,000 books and articles), the Museum, Archives, CAMEL, Epigraphic Survey, and Media.

The site is powered by ISAC's Integrated Database (IDB). Where relationships have been cataloged, you can move among objects, publications, archival materials, images, and related resources.

No. Search Our Collections can be searched and browsed without an account.

For most searches, begin by entering one or more terms in the search box and selecting Submit. By default, Search Our Collections searches broadly across all available collections.

If you know which collection or field you need, use the dropdown menus to make the search more specific.

Use the first dropdown menu to limit your search to one part of Search Our Collections. The current options are Library, Museum, Archives, CAMEL, Epigraphic Survey, and Media. Choose Search All to search across them together.

After you select one of these options, the second dropdown displays searchable fields appropriate to that part of the database.

Search All searches across the collections represented in Search Our Collections rather than restricting your query to a single collection. Your results can include matching records from Library, Museum, Archives, CAMEL, Epigraphic Survey, and Media, allowing you to see where related material occurs across the site.

Select the collection you want to search from the first dropdown menu, then choose a field from the second menu. Field searching is useful when you already know the kind of information you need—for example, an Author in the Library, a Registration Number in the Museum, a Publication Date, or a Place Name.

A general keyword search is usually better when you are beginning your research or are unsure which field contains the information you need.

Select the + button beside the search bar to add another row to your query. You can then combine criteria using Boolean operators.

Search Our Collections supports several operators for combining and refining terms:

• Space (AND) — a space between terms requires both to appear in matching records: temple nippur
• OR — retrieves records containing either term: papyrus OR ostracon
• Hyphen (exclude) — place a hyphen directly before a term to exclude it: mummy -mask
• Parentheses — group alternatives or complex combinations: (papyrus OR ostracon) (demotic OR hieratic)

When using multiple search rows (added with the + button), use AND when all conditions must match, OR when any may match, and NOT to exclude a condition. Be careful combining fields from different collections: one record cannot contain fields that belong to unrelated record types.

Yes. Use an asterisk (*) to represent any number of characters and a question mark (?) to represent a single character.

Wildcards are useful for uncertain spellings, endings, suffixes, or characters.

When searching the Publication Date field, enter the range in square brackets with uppercase TO between the dates.

You can combine a date range with another criterion, such as an author.

If you search without a diacritic, Search Our Collections can retrieve forms both with and without that diacritic. If you include the diacritic, the search is more restrictive and retrieves the matching diacritic form.

You can also use ? for a single uncertain character—for example, when you want to accommodate a letter with or without a diacritic.

Use the facets alongside your search results. Available facets depend on the collection you are viewing and may allow you to limit results by criteria such as material, place, date, gallery, classification, or availability of multimedia.

Yes. Use the Images Only option when available, or refine your results using a multimedia-related facet.

Selecting a result opens its details view. Depending on the record type, this may include descriptive information, photographs or other digital media, related records elsewhere in Search Our Collections, bibliographic references, downloadable files, archival hierarchy information, geospatial data, or specialized resources such as 3D models.

Not every record contains every type of information.

One of the main purposes of Search Our Collections is to connect related information across ISAC collections. A Museum object, for example, may link to photographs in Media and to publications in the Library that discuss that object. These connections allow you to follow relationships among ISAC resources rather than searching each catalog in isolation.

The homepage map provides a geographic view of records available through Search Our Collections, bringing together mappable records from Library, Museum, Archives, CAMEL, Epigraphic Survey, and Media according to their associated archaeological site or place. It is not a separate collection — it is another way of discovering the same records available through Search Our Collections.

Use the map when you want to begin with a geographic location rather than a keyword, object number, or author. It is especially useful for exploring what kinds of ISAC records are associated with a particular site or region.

Search Our Collections is designed to connect related resources across ISAC. A single site may be represented by Museum objects, publications in the Library, archival records, photographs in Media, Epigraphic Survey records, or CAMEL geospatial materials. The map allows those resources to be discovered together through their shared geographic association.

No. Map is a geographic discovery interface for records across Search Our Collections. CAMEL is one searchable collection within the site and contains geospatial resources such as maps, satellite imagery, and related GIS materials. CAMEL records may appear on the collections map when they are associated with a site, alongside records from other parts of ISAC.

Select Museum and the registration-number field. Museum registration numbers may include a prefix, number, and suffix. If you know the prefix and number but are unsure whether a suffix exists, add an asterisk (*) after the known portion to retrieve records with that registration number and any associated suffixes.

Yes. Use Browse to explore records for objects currently on display in the ISAC Museum. You can narrow the results using available criteria such as gallery, object type, material, place, dating, and language, then refine the resulting set further with facets.

When bibliographic references have been cataloged for an object, they appear in the object's details view. Use the associated View Entry link to open the corresponding Library record.

The Research Archives Library catalog is more detailed than a simple list of books. In addition to records for complete volumes, it contains records for independently authored material such as journal articles, book chapters, reviews, conference proceedings, Festschrift contributions, and encyclopedia entries.

This makes the catalog useful both for locating materials in the Research Archives Library and as a bibliographic research tool.

A Keyword search is often the best starting point. If you know the publication you need, try an author's surname together with distinctive words from the title. For topical research, try several combinations of relevant terminology and, where useful, equivalent terms in other scholarly languages.

When using the Author field, searching only the surname is often the safest approach because some catalog records may use a first initial rather than a full given name.

Select Library and search the Call Number field. For example:

Serial publications follow comparable call-number conventions.

Archives records describe archival materials held in ISAC's archival collections. These records may be organized hierarchically by collection, series, box, folder, and item.

Media records describe photographs and other digital files that may originate in any ISAC unit, including images, scans, PDFs, and related resources. Digital files may be linked to Museum objects, archival records, publications, or other records in Search Our Collections.

For some collections, yes. Finding aids may be attached to collection-level records as downloadable PDFs. They provide information about the history and scope of the collection and describe its organization.

CAMEL (the Center for Ancient Middle Eastern Landscapes) includes geospatial resources such as maps, satellite imagery, and related GIS materials. CAMEL is one of the searchable collections within Search Our Collections and is distinct from the Map interface, which brings together geographically associated records from across ISAC collections.

Yes. Use the save control on individual search results to assemble a working set of records. From the saved-records view you can review them together and export. Available export options depend on the record type: Library records can be copied for use in another document or exported for bibliographic-management software such as Zotero; Museum records can be exported as tabular data for use in spreadsheet software.

Some records contain downloadable files. Library records may include full-text ISAC publications when available; archival records may include finding aids; and some Media or geospatial records may provide associated files. Availability depends on the individual record.

Images and other materials available through Search Our Collections are provided under ISAC's current terms of use and licensing policies. Before reproducing material in a publication, website, exhibition, or other public product, consult the current image-use and reproduction guidance linked from the site.

Try broadening or reformulating the search. Useful strategies include:

• search fewer words;
• try a keyword search instead of a highly specific field;
• try alternate spellings;
• omit a diacritic to broaden a search;
• use wildcards for uncertain characters, endings, or suffixes;
• try equivalent terminology in another scholarly language;
• search only a surname rather than a complete author name;
• search a broader date range; or
• check that you are searching the correct department or collection.

It is often useful to try several different searches rather than relying on a single formulation.

Limit the search to a particular collection or field, add another search criterion with the + button, or narrow the result set using facets.

Use the Feedback form to report incorrect or incomplete information, ask a question, or request assistance. When reporting a record issue, include the record number or URL and any sources supporting the correction. For general questions, include as much detail as possible about the material you are trying to locate and the searches you have already tried.