Searching Europeana
General Search
Searching the millions of items in Europeana is simple. Just ask yourself who, what, where or when you are interested in and type these words into Europeana's search box. You can try:
- Who: Names of actors, authors, architects, artists, choreographers, composers, conductors, dancers, film directors, musicians or photographers.
- What: Words from titles of books, poems, newspapers, paintings, photographs, films or television programmes.
- Where: Names of towns, cities or countries within Europe or around the world.
- When: Dates (e.g. 1945) such as the year you were born in or a famous date in history or a period (e.g. Roman or Medieval).
Specific search
You can also narrow your search by using the same key questions:
- Enter who: followed by a name of an actor, author, architect, etc., in the search box and your results will display only items, where the name you are looking for is listed as creator. For example, searching for who: Vincent van Gogh will narrow your results to van Gogh's works, excluding photographs of the artist or documentaries about him and his work.
- Enter what: followed by a type or a subject of the items you are interested in and your search results will display only items of the requested type or on the requested subject. For example, searching for what: maps will narrow your results to maps, or what: Art Nouveau will display artworks, buildings and monuments done in the Art Nouveau style.
- Enter where: followed by a name of a town, city or country within Europe or around the world, and your search results will display only items which were created, published or depict the place you are searching for. For example, searching for where: Milan will help you differentiate your search, when you are looking only for objects created or held in Milan, excluding items on writer Milan Kundera from your search results.
- Enter when: followed by a date (e.g. 1945) or a period (e.g. Roman or Medieval), and your search results will display only items, where the date is listed in the item's date field. For example, searching for when: 1984 will help you differentiate your search, when you are looking only for items dated 1984, excluding items that have 1984 in their title or description, like George Orwell's novel.
These search functions also have support for different spellings and multi-lingual support. For example, when you search for where: Milan, the results will also include items with Milano, Mailand or Milanas listed as their geographic coverage.
Phrase search
Phrase search is also possible. Just put quotation marks (e.g. "art nouveau") around the phrase you want to find, or type AND between the keywords (e.g. art AND nouveau).
Exclude words by typing NOT in capital letters, followed by the word you want to omit (e.g. Auguste NOT Renoir).
Other helpful search features in Europeana include:
- Auto completion: Start typing a search term. Europeana will suggest words that may match what you are thinking of. Press the down arrow to reach the term you want and hit 'enter' to search by that term.
- Spelling suggestions: Europeana will suggest an alternative spelling, if it seems a mistake has been made (e.g. a search for 'Dirwin' would prompt the suggestion 'Darwin')
Refined search
Once you have done an initial search, results can be narrowed down with the refine search function. Click on the 'Refine your search' link underneath the search box and add the second term by which you would like to filter your results.
You can also filter your search results
- By media type - will display only objects of a selected media type (images, text, video or sound)
- By language - will display only objects with descriptions in selected languages
- By date - will display only objects with selected dates
- By country - will display only objects from selected countries
- By provider - will display only objects from selected institutions
- By rights - will display only objects with selected rights of use
Select the filter you want to use from the menu on the left of your search results page and narrow your search.