Overview
Collections Search is the main tool for searching the Screencraft collections catalogue (we suggest using the Google Chrome browser when accessing).
On the main Collections Search page, click on the link ’Search the database’. This will take you to the simple search function, which we recommend as a starting place to access the listings and gain a broad sense of the material we hold.
Screencraft refers to the collections on the catalogue listed as the following:
- Scripts, documents and ephemera
- Posters and designs
- Stills
You can search within one of these areas or tick all three boxes in a single search.
A simple search will look for your search term in several fields of the record, and we recommend searching by film or television titles or the name of a person.
Simple search tips
When searching for a film title with ‘The’ as the first word, leave this word out. For example, enter ‘Red Shoes’ instead of ‘The Red Shoes’.
If the film title contains an apostrophe, and the catalogue is not returning results, try searching without the apostrophe.
Once you’ve clicked into a record, use the ‘Hierarchy Browser’ section to understand how the material within that collection is arranged, and to navigate to other items within that collection. Where you see a blue cross, click on it to expand a section of the listings.
To search the listings within the stills section of the catalogue, use the simple search. You won’t be able to view actual digitised images unless at a BFI site.
To more comprehensively search the catalogue, we recommend using the advanced or expert search functions.
Advanced search
An advanced search gives you the option to search in a specific or combination of fields, and is particularly useful when searching within the scripts, documents and ephemera section of the catalogue, which contains the listings of our named collections.
Not all fields are populated with data and we recommend using the following search fields:
Word(s) from the title
If you do not know the exact title of the record, you can make a partial search using this field.
Content description (also referred to as ‘Scope and Content’)
The information contained in this field varies from record to record and is the most detailed.
The ‘Scope and Content’ field can be useful to look for the names of an associated individual, place names, types of material (for example, script or letter), and even dates.
Reference
If you know the exact reference, for example, PKR-1-2-1, entering it here will take you to the exact record.
Alternatively, to view all the listings in, for example, the Alan Parker Collection, enter PKR*. You can then navigate the collection using the ‘Hierarchy Browser’ section.
As an example, if looking for a memo within the Alan Parker Collection, enter PKR* in the reference search field and enter memo in the ‘Content Description’ box.
Date (free text)
Currently most dates in Screencraft records are entered as free text, often in ranges (for example, 1960–1969). To maximise your results when using this field, substitute the fourth digit of your search year with an asterisk (*) to enable truncation.
For example, searching 196* will look for all records where the archivist has stated a date within the decade 1960s. This search will only return records where the archivist has stated a date range.
The advanced search can also be useful if you’d like to search the ‘Designs’ section of the catalogue, for works by a particular creator. To do this, enter: surname, comma, first name – for example, Reiniger, Lotte – in the box next to ‘Creator’.
Expert search
The expert search function can be used to conduct a ‘free text’ search. This will allow users to search for any word(s) across our scripts, documents and ephemera collections.
To free text search:
- Select Expert search
- In the ‘Search In’ field dropdown, choose ‘Scripts, Documents and Ephemera’
- From the left-hand drop-down menu (where it says ‘Title — exact’) choose ‘Word(s) from the title’
- Type your keyword – for example, ‘Alan Parker’
- Select ‘or’ from the right-hand drop-down menu (where it says ‘Trunc’) and hit the plus (+) symbol
- A new row will appear. Repeat these steps choosing ‘Content Description’ as your second field and ‘Notes’ as your third field, and inserting the same search term.
The Hierarchy Browser
The ‘Hierarchy Browser’ appears at the bottom of each record. It is useful for gaining a good overview of the contents of a specific collection and allows you to move between different parts of it. Clicking the + or – signs will expand or collapse those levels of the hierarchy.
Not all items belong to a collection that can be navigated using the ‘Hierarchy Browser’ (this includes the script sequence and the press books collection).