In addition to keyword, author, title, and subject searches, the following searches and limits may be helpful in locating rare books, archives, manuscripts, visual materials, and other special collections materials in Orbis.
Format limits
On the Basic Search screen, the “Quick Limits” option allows you to apply a limit—to keyword and title searches—for some of the most common material formats, including “Archives or Manuscripts.” You may also apply a format limit after executing a Basic Search, by using the “Filter your Search” feature on the search results screen.
On the Advanced Search screen, the “Type” limit allows you to select from a number of special collections formats, including:
- Archives or Manuscripts
- Print or Manuscript Maps
- Print or Manuscript Music
- Sound Recordings
- Three-Dimensional Artifacts
- Visual Material
Location limits
On the Advanced Search screen, you may limit your search to a specific library by selecting a repository in the “Location” limit. Yale special collections repositories include:
- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
- British Art Center
- Divinity Library
- Haas Arts Library
- Lewis Walpole Library
- Manuscripts and Archives
- Medical Historical Library
- Music Library
The “Location” limit also allows you to select specific collections within some of these repositories.
Genre/form searches
You may search within the “Genre/form” field on the Advanced Search screen by selecting it on the pull-down menu to the right of the search box.
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Genre/Form: |
Example: |
|---|---|
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Printed Material |
Broadsides, Poems, Songs, Sermons |
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Manuscript material |
Diaries, Albums, Recipes, Scrapbooks, Account books, Sketch books |
|
Visual material |
Photographs, Drawings, Engravings, Mezzotints, Satires (Visual works), Genre prints, Caricatures, Portraits, Landscapes |
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Cartographic material |
Atlases, Military maps, Nautical charts, Strip maps |
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Bindings |
Armorial bindings, Chained bindings, Pigskin bindings |
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Provenance |
Annotations, Armorial bookplates, Extra-illustrated copies |
Special collections subject searches
You may search within the “Special Collections Subject” field on the Advanced Search screen by selecting it on the pull-down menu to the right of the search box.
Binders
You may search for binders by name, within the “Author” field or the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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Example: |
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Sangorski & Sutcliffe |
Provenance
To find items previously owned by an individual or corporate entity, search for the name within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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Examples: |
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Van Vechten Carl G. & C. Merriam Company |
You may also search for items with provenance by combining a person’s name and certain provenance terms within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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Examples: |
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Murdoch Iris autograph Mellon Mary Conover bookplate Nabokov Vladimir inscription Walpole Horace Ms. notes |
Incunabula
To find incunabula (books printed before 1501) at Yale, search for the following terms, as a phrase, within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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Example: |
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Incunabula in Yale Library |
To find incunabula, you may also search for the country, city, printer, and date (in that order) within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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Example: |
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England London Pynson Richard |
Early publications
To find early publications at the Beinecke Library and the Lewis Walpole Library, search key terms (as a phrase) within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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To find: |
Search: |
Example: |
|---|---|---|
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American imprints before 1820 |
[place] [year] |
Massachusetts Boston 1720 |
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Connecticut imprints before 1851 |
[place] [publisher or printer] [year] |
Connecticut Hartford James Riley 1817 |
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Confederate States imprints between 1861 and 1865 |
[place] [year] |
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States west of the Mississippi River imprints through 1865 or 1890 |
[place] [year] |
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Mexico imprints before 1865 |
[place] [year] |
Pamphlets (tracts)
To find tracts (works with fewer than 100 pages) at the Beinecke Library and the Lewis Walpole Library, search key terms (as a phrase) within the “Special Collections Subject” field.
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To find: |
Search: |
Example: |
|---|---|---|
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American tracts |
amer tracts [year] |
amer tracts 1776 |
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British tracts, |
brit tracts [year] |
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European |
euro tracts [year] |
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Latin American |
lat amer tracts [year] |
Local Call number searches (Basic Search screen only)
Most of the special collections libraries at Yale use locally devised call numbers that are indexed separately from Library of Congress (LC) call numbers. If you know a Yale-assigned call number, you may begin browsing a collection by entering the call number in the search box and then selecting the “Call Number (Local)” index from the pull-down menu to the right.
To learn more about locally assigned call numbers, contact reference staff in the special collections library.