Taking the Mystery out of Data Retrieval Our Search queries the Cartographic Arts database to retrieve records containing the words you select. Each record contains data for one map (book, etc.). Our database has several fields; e.g., Title, Cartographer (Author), Engraver, Publisher, Date Published, etc., and the search focuses on one or more of those fields. Our search uses initial strings: "Vancou" will find "Vancouver", "J Cook" will find "Cook, James". Accented characters are searched intelligently: "trophee eleve" will find "trophée élevé", "Buecher" will find "Bücher" and vice versa, but "Bucher" will not find "Bücher". Most of the time you will get back answers you expected. If you ask for "Blaeu" as an Author, the answers will be limited to Blaeu. If the author's surname is a common one, you should specify one or more initials in addition. If you are uncertain of the spelling or the name is very long, you can search using the initial part of the name: "Dost" will find "Dostoyevsky", "Dostoevskii", etc. If you ask for "France" in the Title, the retrieval system searches the fields we determine to be appropriate and returns all records containing that word. Many of the responses will be about maps and books about France in Europe. However, several early maps of America have the word "France" in their titles, so you will get those maps also. Using this approach will not retrieve all maps of France because many have titles without the word "France". If you are uncertain of the precise title, specify only the part of which you are sure. If you want to see a list of all maps of France, try our menu system. Many search problems are solved by making an entry in the Any Word(s) field. The search queries our database field containing the descriptions you see on our web pages (our Catalog). This search system digs even deeper into our records to answer your query. But you may also receive unexpected answers. For example, if you ask for "France", you may also receive records of maps where we have discussed France regarding settlement of the French and Indian War. With this type of search, you are not limited to the choices; instead, you can search for any word, number or year, and combinations thereof. For example, enter "1819 Tanner" in the Any Word(s) box and you will see maps dated or published by Tanner in 1819. Be aware of one pitfall: all query words specified must be present in the record or it will not be listed. Imprint refers to publisher, place published, and year of publication. Many publishers have changed their name over the years so this may not give you all of the items from that publishing house. Sorting. We suggest you use Sort by Title or Sort by Author (Cartographer) to put similar items adjacent to each other.