This search is an alphabetical search. Alphabetical searches work like the phone book. If you know only the first letter of a person’s last name, you have to flip to that section and start looking. Knowing a few more letters allows you to narrow your search. When you perform an alphabetical search, the system moves through the alphabet until it reaches your first letter. Within that letter, it continues to search until it has reached all of the letters in your search term. For instance, if you select the Object Name search and type in "PAINTING," the system will move first to the P and then to PA and then to PAI and so forth. If there is no exact match, the system will bring back the closest records it can find. The type of information that the system alphabetizes depends on the search you choose. 

 The Author Alphabetical search has a special function. For archival, library, manuscript or audiovisual material, it will return information on authors, agencies, editors or other people or companies related to making and/or collecting of the material. For museum objects, the search will return information about owners, manufacturers, makers, collectors and/or other people historically related to the objects. The search performs these functions simultaneously so you may receive records that are not always what you would expect. For example, a search on the Archives/Library collection may bring back museum records as well. This is not by accident. Combining this information allows for the most consistent and complete searching of our materials. In many cases, this search may reveal relationships between our various collections that are not readily apparent. We believe this feature is of great value to our researchers.

• A person's name must be entered last name, first name (ie. Jones, Tom not Tom Jones). Any other entity should be searched by name in direct order (ie. Greyhound Buslines not Buslines, Greyhound).
•  Because this is an alphabetical search, the system will start the search with the first letter you've entered. For instance, if you enter "Colonel Crawford Inn," it will start with "C" and then continue with "O" and "L" and so forth.
• Do not type initial articles (such as "An," "The," or "A"). For example, if you wanted to search for Zane Grey's "The Drift Fence" you would enter "Drift Fence."
• Remember that the results will represent person or entity with one or more objects or titles related to them. To see the titles, you will need to click on the person or entity entry.