If you're new to our database - welcome! Please take a minute to read through the following to understand how our system works and how to improve your searches.
The collections of the Museum of English Rural Life, as well as the Bibliography of British and Irish Rural History can be searched online.
The database includes:
- the catalogue of the main collections at the Museum - library, archives, photographs and objects
- the Bibliography of British and Irish Rural History
The Bibliography of British and Irish Rural History contains references to books, journal articles, chapters in edited works and theses. It can be used to discover more about the contents of the books and journals held in the MERL Library. It also contains references to books and articles not held in this library. More details...
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Further Information
Which search option is best?
Finding particular types of material
Things to watch out for
And finally...
Which search option is best?
- I know the title of a book, archive collection or object
- Use the Title and Name Search option
If you're not sure where a particular word comes in the title or name, put a % sign in front of it. eg: wagon finds all items beginning with the word wagon. %wagon finds all items that have wagon in the title.
- I want to find items by or about a particular author or company
- Use the Name Only Search option
Enter the name you are looking for (a person's surname or a company name) in to the 'Author or corporate name' box and click Search Now. You'll be able to see all the titles that are either by or about that name.
- I'm not quite sure what I'm looking for, I'm uncertain of the spelling or I want to find out what you have on...
- Use the Keyword Search option
A keyword search looks for plurals and singulars, accounts for common spelling mistakes and checks for Americanisms (Zs instead of Ss). It also finds words with alternative endings, eg: shoot returns shoots, shooting, etc.
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Finding particular types of material
The catalogue holds records for all of our collections - library, photographic, objects and archives. You may only be interested in one aspect of the collections.
After selecting a search option and entering what you are looking for, scroll down to the "Restrict to items of media type" section.
Commonly used media types are:
- Archives
- for our archive collections. Full catalogues of many of our archive collections are available on Access to Archives or may appear as 'Attached objects' to the database record to download. See our archive collection pages for full details.
- Artefacts/Realia
- for our object collections.
- Books/Monographs
- for our library book and pamphlet collections.
- Graphic Materials
- for our photographic collections.
- Motion Pictures
- for our film and video collections.
- Serial Header
- for our library periodical collections.
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Things to watch out for
- Bibliography
- The catalogue includes items in the Bibliography of British and Irish Rural History. These are references to journal articles, books, conference proceedings, etc. The Museum of English Rural Life does not necessarily hold these items in its collections.
If you just want to find out about the archives, objects, photographs, books and journals held at MERL, then you can restrict your search by going to the "Restrict to items held at" section of the search screen and selecting "Museum of English Rural Life". If you want to find out what's been published on a particular subject, then the Bibliography will help.
The "Media type" in the results 'hitlist' tells you whether you've found a bibliographical reference or a record of an item held at MERL. If the Media type includes "(bib)", then you've found a bibliographical reference. If it's a book, check to see whether there's a second entry for the library item. If it's a journal article or book chapter, look at the full record to see the title of the book or journal it appears in, then search for that title.
You may wish to find out more about the Bibliography and how to locate the items it describes.
- Pop-ups
- The database normally opens in a new browser window, as do 'Attached Objects'. If you have pop-up blocking software installed on your computer you may need to configure it allow popups from 'www.merl.org.uk' and 'www.rhc.rdg.ac.uk'.
- Timeouts
- The database automatically 'resets' your session if there has been no activity (such as a new search or viewing a record) for five minutes.
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And finally...
Our collections are reference only. They are not available for loan. The reservations feature that is displayed in the database is not used by the Museum.
Don't be afraid to ask us if you cannot find something in the catalogue. It might still be in our card indexes. E-mail us at merl@reading.ac.uk. We would also like to hear from you if you experience difficulties in using the database or in understanding the results.
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Ready to begin?
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