What is Images Canada?
Images Canada is a search service providing access to the online image collections of participating Canadian cultural institutions. Images Canada enables cross-collection searching, and provides a direct link from any search result back to the relevant full-size image and record on the originator's website.
Searching for images
Simple keyword searching is available at the top of most pages on the Images Canada site. Type in your keyword(s) to search all of the image descriptions in the database and find related images.
"Advanced Search" allows you to refine your search by searching within specific fields of the image descriptions in the database. In an advanced search, you may also combine search terms using the operators "and," "or" and "not."
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Use the "and" operator to the image descriptions that contain all your keywords.
Example:
Searching for "cottage" and "Ontario" on the advanced search page will retrieve all images with "cottage" in the image title field and "Ontario" in the coverage field. The "and" operator typically decreases the number of search results.
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Use the "or" operator to find image descriptions containing any of your keywords.
Example:
Searching for "camp" or "tent" on the advanced search page will retrieve all images with "camp" in the image title field or "tent" in the image title field. The "or" operator typically increases the number of search results.
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Use the "not" operator to find image descriptions containing your first search term, but not your second search term.
Example:
Searching for "tent" not "camp" on the advanced search page will retrieve all images with "tent" in the image title field, and exclude those which also have "camp" in the image title field. The "not" operator is useful for excluding search results which are related but not relevant to you. In the above example, search results for images of army base camps are excluded.
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Images Canada searchable fields
The following fields are searchable in Images Canada. To search within a specific field of an image record, use the "Advanced Search" feature. The simple keyword search available on most pages on the site searches the entire image record.
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Field |
Field contents |
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Coverage |
Geographic area, typically Canadian province or geographic region |
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Creator |
The person or institution responsible for creating the image |
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Date |
Date of the image or image event, in the format YYYY (some date fields include more specific information and may be searched using YYYYMM or YYYYMMDD) |
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Description |
Description of the image |
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Identifier |
Source institution catalogue number for the image |
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Publisher |
The institution which published the image |
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Source |
The source institution |
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Subject |
Subject indexing |
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Title |
The image caption or title |
Other tips
Try the Images Canada Trails page for search ideas. We also have links to several Photo Essays, which provide a narrative on a particular theme enhanced with images from partner collections. Check out the Educational Resources page for teaching strategies and classroom activities that use the Images Canada website.
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