Introduction

The Virtual Vietnam Archive is a multi-year project to digitize the holdings of the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech and to make all non-copyrighted materials available through the web. To do this, the Virtual Archive utilizes a relational database system called Cuadra Star. This system allows for very fast, complex searches of all data in the database, including full text of many documents. New items are being added to the Virtual Archive every day, at a rate of approximately 30,000 pages per month. The purpose of this tutorial is to help researchers understand how to utilize the capabilities of the Virtual Archive to their full extent.

Table of Contents

The Search Pages

• The Quick Search Page
• The Advanced Search Page
• The Center Section - Search Fields
• The Search Fields
• Index Links
• Conducting Searches

Index Terms Pages

• About the Page
• List Terms Near / Show Near
• Previous Section / Next Section
• Selecting / Paste Term(s) / Return w/o Pasting
• Search Links

Browse List

• About the Page
• Information Displayed
• Moving Between Results Pages
• Sort By
• Display Selections
• More Information Link
• View all Documents in this Folder or Box Links

More Information Page

• About the Page
• Information Displayed
• Full Text
• Collection Location
• Return To

Error Pages, Messages, Systems Maintenance, & Access Problems

• Overview
• Virtual Vietnam Archive Error Pages
• File Retrieval Errors (StarFetch)
• Internet Error Pages
• Messages
• System Maintenance
• Access Problems

Examples of Common Searches

• Step-by-Step Searching - Basic Search
• Finding documents from the CDEC (Captured Document Exploitation Center) Collection
• Finding documents from the US Marine Corps History Division Collection
• Finding documents from the My Lai Collection
• Finding materials I (a donor to the archive) donated
• Differentiating between different Douglas Pike Collection Units
• Finding Oral Histories

Tutorials' Glossary

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