Thomas J. Watson Library
Hazen Center

International Medieval Bibliography (IMB)
Contents & Search Tips

Description:

Includes 300,000 records deriving from articles published in periodicals (journals) and in miscellany volumes (conference proceedings, collected essays, Festschriften and exhibition catalogues) published world-wide.
 
Coverage:   All subjects relating to the Middle Ages are included, within the date range 400-1500 AD.  Geographical coverage includes Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
 
Database
Specific:		   To exit IMB use the exit option in the left-hand menu.  Then click the Logout button on the next screen.

Search Tips  
Operators
(To be used within fields and between fields)
 
Default
 The default search is phrase searching.  Thus, IMB will treat your terms as a phrase unless you specify otherwise.
AND Finds records that contain all of your search terms.  E.G. Romanesque and sculpture and Italy.  AND will narrow your search.
OR Finds records that contain any of your search terms.  E.G. Italy or Italian.  OR will broaden your search and is useful for variant spellings and synonyms.
NOT Finds records that contain one term (or set of terms) but not another. E.G. Romanesque and sculpture not Italian.
Order of Operators The database performs the operators in the following order:

AND, OR, NOT.

Use parenthese to override this order.  E.G. Romanesque and sculpture and (Italy or Italian).
   
Truncation
 
* Use as a substitute for an indefinite number of characters.  E.G. prophet* will pick up the terms prophet, prophets, prophetical, etc.
? Use to represent one character.  E.G. wom?n will pick up the terms woman and women.  
   
Search Fields
   

An automatic AND is performed between the terms entered in each field.  Use the drop-down menu to select OR/NOT.  You can also use operators (AND, OR, NOT) within each field.

AUTHOR

This search functions as both an exact author search and an author keyword search.  You can search in any of the following ways:

  • Enter exact name of author: last name, first name
  • Enter last name only
  • Enter first and last name of author, order not specific.
TITLE

This search functions as both an exact title search and a title keyword search.  You can search in any of the following ways:

  • Enter the exact title.
  • Enter words from the title.  E.G. “prophesy and modena” will retrieve the title Prophecy and priesthood at Modena.
PUBLICATION This search functions as both an exact search for a publication and a keyword publication search, i.e. keywords in publication title.
YEAR OF PUBLICATION Enter a date or select from the browse list by clicking the "Years" button on the right.
LANGUAGE Of WORK Enter a language or select from the browse list by clicking the "Linelist" button on the right.  N.B. The name of the language must be entered in that language, i.e. “Francais” not “French”.
ALL INDEX TERMS This is a keyword search.  It searches for all index terms that have been assigned to a record, generally within the subject field or the "other index terms" field.  (The "other index terms" field appears in the record but not the search screen.)

E.G. "Campania and Romanesque" will retrieve records that have been assigned these terms.
SUBJECTS This searches for exact subject headings as well as keywords within the subject field.  It does not search the “other index terms” field.
PLACE This searches for exact place headings as well as keywords within the place field.
REPOSITORIES Indicates the Library that owns the manuscript/codice.
CENTURY This search does not appear to work consistently.  Use the Database Thesaurus instead to get a sense of available date ranges.  Access the thesaurus by clicking on Indexes in the left-hand menu, then select Index by date.  
   
Browse Lists
   
Browse lists can help you make optimal use of the database because they guide you towards preferred search terms.  The browse lists for each indexed field are available by clicking the buttons on the right side of the search screen.  There are two columns of buttons.  The buttons on the left will bring you to an alphabetical list of exact terms for a field, while the buttons on the right will bring you to an alphabetical list of keywords for that field.  

E.G. Clicking the Linelist button next to the Title Field will allow you to browse titles alphabetically.  Selecting a title from this list performs an exact title search.  The Wordlist button allows you to browse keywords in the titles.  

To add a title keyword from the Wordlist to your search query simply click on the word and then click the select button.  The add button allows you to add more than one term to your search query within the same index field.  N.B. When adding terms from any Wordlist, the database performs an “OR” operation.  

Special note on using the subject browse lists:
The Specific list will allow you to browse more specific and narrower subject headings than the General List.  E.G. "Abbesses-Augustinian hermits" is found in the Specific list versus "Monasticism" in the General list.

You can also browse subject headings through the Database Thesaurus or subject tree by clicking on Indexes in the left-hand menu.  By expanding the nodes or sub-headings you will eventually get to a group of records that contain those headings.
   
Displaying Results and Search History
 
  • Results are displayed in date descending order.
  • Use the "Counts Hits" button to asses the number of records before displaying your results.
  • Left-Hand Menu Options:
    • The Settings option allows you to control the display.
    • The Language option allows you to select from English, French or German for the language of the search interface.
    • Use the Search History option to revisit your search history and adjust or re-execute your past searches.

****** The text entry boxes in the IMB search interface accept a limited number of characters.  Long search strings are thus not always possible.