Using the online catalogue
The following notes provide information on how to search the catalogue
The North Devon Athenaeum has three main online catalogues: Library; Documents Archive; Image Archive. Each has its own dataset it is intended to add further catalogues in the future.
Library Catalogue:
The Library catalogue comprises an index to our whole collection of books and pamphlets. We provide three text boxes to facilitate a search (a) Keyword*, (b) Author, (c) Dewey Class.
The Keyword field searches across the Author, Title and Description fields of the catalogue.
The Author field searches by Author in the format surname with or without an initial. i.e. Chope or Chope. R
The Class field searches the Dewey Classification of Subject/Aspect in the format such as; 900 DER D where the 3 numbers indicates the general subject area, the 3 letters the Author and an addition suffix of such as 'D' or 'DP' indicates the counties if within the west of England.
Conduct the search by clicking the button
* indicates a compulsory field
Document Archive:
The Document catalogue comprises an index to the various Documents, MSs, Maps, Plans, and personal research materials held. We provide three text boxes to facilitate a search (a) Keyword*, (b) optional 2nd Keyword, (c) Town or Parish.
The first Keyword searches across the document title and description fields of the catalogue.
The 2nd Keyword field searches the same data fields but allows the inclusion of a second category of information.
The Town or Parish field searches across its named field, It must be noted that not all entries have a specific Town or Parish data entry and some entries are European.
Conduct the search by clicking the button
* indicates a compulsory field.
Image Archive:
The Athenaeum holds and extensive collection of Images, Postcards, Negatives, Drawings, Art Works and Prints. The catalogue represents the greater part of the collection. We hold the archive of images from the North Devon Journal newspaper, the 4000 glass plate negatives are included but the 35mm strip negatives are awaiting indexing. For photographs published in the N.D. Journal it is possible that if you can identify the issue and date we hold the negative.
The search of the catalogue is by the use of two text boxes (a) Keyword, (b) Parish or Town.
The Keyword search is across the title and description fields of the catalogue.
The Parish or Town field is across its named field. It must be noted that not all entries have a specific Town or Parish data entry
Newspaper Archive:
The Newspaper catalogue comprises an index to the collection of Newspapers we hold. At present we have made available the set for year 1852 and will be actively transferring our paper index into this dataset. We provide three text boxes to facilitate a search (a) Keyword*, (b) Town or Parish, (c) Category .
The first Keyword searches across the article title and description fields of the catalogue.
The 2nd field searches the Town or Parish field searches across its named field, It must be noted that not all entries have a specific Town or Parish data entry.
The 3rd field allows the inclusion category of information as used within the editorial.
Conduct the search by clicking the button
* indicates a compulsory field.
**The Search facilities may be amended to reflect users search patterns and we reserve the right to do this without notification.
We accept no liability for the content of the catalogues and they are provided 'as is' to give an indication of the extent and content of the N.D. Athenaeum holdings.
If you have a specific interest in an item within the catalogue then you are advised to contact the N.D. Athenaeum Librarian prior to incurring any expenses.
We do not accept any liability for expenses or consequences incurred by the of use of the catalogue.
Search Results:
The results of a search appear in a tabular index below the text boxes.
If there is no relevant catalogue entry to your search the return will be blank.
Some columns can be sorted (A-
Refine your search criteria to enable a further search.
The tabular index has a left-
The tabular index will contain 10 entries per page access any further sets of 10 entries by clicking the page numbers at the base of the tabular index. If the search returns exceed 10 pages of 10 items the following 10 page can be accessed by clicking the ..entry at the right hand side of the page count.
Viewing original documents:
Make a note of the full details of any record you find of interest. In the case of books the Title, Author and Class Number. For Documents the File Number and Storage Location. For Images The Title and Bay and Storage Location. For Newspapers the publication year and the page and column of the article.
Some documents may be closed to public access for legal reasons or due to confidentiality issues. The Access Status of these are marked as ‘Closed’.
Some documents are fragile and/or awaiting conservation these are marked UFP and will normally not be available for consultation.
The N.D. Athenaeum Trustees have not thought it 'beneficial' to enable a Soundex facility on their catalogue therefore you must be aware that spellings of the names of people and places can vary between entries and not all have been modernised.