BBIH Help - Table of contents 2.8.6 All index terms

The All index terms field is available on the both the Simple search screen and the Advanced search screen in the Subject search section.

This field provides a quick way of doing a subject search, as it enables you to search all the Subject tree entries, Place name tree entries and Person as subject entries using a single field. You can also search for these terms using individual fields on the Advanced search screen, but All index terms enables you to type your term yourself, rather than selecting it from the tree, as you have to do with Subject tree and Place name tree. However, you may prefer to use the individual fields if you are looking for a term that is likely to appear in more than one index (as, for example, with 'Reading', which occurs as a subject, as part of a place name ('Reading (Berkshire)') and as part of a personal name ('Isaacs, Rufus Daniel, 1st marquess of Reading, 1860-1935'). Additionally, Subject tree and Place name tree enable you to browse the structure of the hierarchical indexing scheme.

If you enter more than one word, the software will search for records that contain all the words in the subject indexing fields, irrespective of their order. However you can modify this to search for phrases by enclosing the phrase in double inverted commas (learn more: 2.3) and you can also use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to modify how the search is carried out (learn more: 2.4.3).

You can use wildcards in this field (learn more: 2.4.1).

This field has an auto-complete list showing all the subject indexing terms used in the Bibliography (learn more: 2.5) and, on the Advanced search screen, a browse list (learn more: 2.6).

When the text that you enter matches a term from the Subject tree or Place name tree a generic search is carried out, so that your search includes all the terms grouped beneath your selected term in the hierarchy. For example, when you search for 'Transport', your search automatically includes 'Railways', 'Merchant shipping' and other aspects of transport.

Learn more about the individual fields from which All index terms is derived (these fields are available on the Advanced search screen only):
   • Subject tree
   • Place name tree
   • Person as subject