Using the Archaeological Reports Digital Library

You can find the reports you are looking for by either 'browsing' or 'searching'. Browsing allows you to look through the library in the following fields: author, title, year published, territorial authority, authority number or NZAA site number. Searching will present you with a list of reports containing the word or phrase entered into the search box.

Help with Browsing

Browsing is pretty straightforward. Select the appropriate tab underneath the search box to browse within that field. Authors, Titles and NZAA Site Numbers are sorted into alphabetical groupings found at the top of each browse page. Year Published is sorted numerically, with relevant years found at the top of the browse page. Authority Number is also sorted by numerically, this time with the years found down the left hand side of the browse page. Territorial Authority is sorted alphabetically with each council name listed down the left hand side of the browse page, plus a map of New Zealand showing the location of territorial authority boundaries which are enlarged when you scroll the cursor over.

Authors, territorial authorities, authority number and NZAA site number are sorted into sub-categories which are accessed by clicking on either this bookshelf icon or the sign next to it.

Help with Searching

Simply type the word or phrase into the search box (located at the top right of each page), select where you would like to search (either within the text of the reports, within authors, titles, year published, territorial authorities, authority numbers, NZAA site numbers or report identifier (e.g. Brooks1) then click on the search button. Indicate phrases by typing double quotes around the phrase, e.g. "Whanganui River". All the default search settings will be used. Results are split into pages - use the next/previous arrows to navigate through the pages of search results.

If you want more control over your search settings you can use the advanced search form.

Advanced Search

The advanced search gives you even more precision, allowing boolean combination between terms in different fields. For example, excavation in Titles AND "fish hooks" in the Text. Matching is case-insensitive, and so will find occurances such as Excavation as well as excavation. Word-stemming is used, and so matches with excavations will also be found. Through the advanced form you can even perform queries that exclude reports, such as searching for "mission house" in Titles but NOT geomagnetic in the Text.

There are several search parameters which you can set in the advanced search:

• Sort search results by: The ordering of search results, by rank (how closely the report matches your search terms) or by year.
• Sort order: Ascending or descending order based on what is being sorted by. Ascending would be A - Z, 1 - 99, while descending would be Z - A, or 99 - 1.
• AND/OR/NOT: When entering words or phrases in more than one of the available search boxes, changing the drop down box to the left of each box will affect how the search is carried out. By selecting AND the search will return reports that contain all of the words or phrases. By selecting OR the search will return reports that contain one or more of the words or phrases entered. By selecting NOT the search will leave out any reports that contain that word or phrase.
• Hits per page: How many hits per page of search results to show.

Understanding your Search Results

By default, your search results are presented in order of relevance: those reports more closely matching the search terms are presented first. This can be changed in the search preferences in the advanced search.

Refining the Results

Using the boxes on the right hand side of the search results you can refine your search. You can filter the results by Territorial Authority, Authority Number, or NZAA Site Number. For example, selecting one of the options underneath Territorial Authorities will restrict the results to only those reports in that Authority. Selecting two options will show reports for both Authorities. If none are selected, then no filtering based on Authority will be done.

Downloading Reports

You can download a pdf of any report by either clicking on the pdf icon to the left of the report title, or by clicking on the report title which takes you to a summary page at the bottom of which is a link to click to download. Before accessing the report you will be asked to accept some terms and conditions. Once the report is open, click on the download bottom at the top right of the pdf and select a location to save the file.