Search A2A Archives

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A2A Search Options

A2A is a database that lets you search and browse for information on a large number of archives in the United Kingdom. The aim of the database is not to provide users with a route to every particular instance of a name, place or subject as one might find in an index to a published book. Rather it provides users with an ‘at a glance’ view of the catalogues that are most likely to be concerned with the person or subject, etc, that they are interested in.

A2A can be searched in a number of ways but all searches start on the A2A Search Page (the "Search A2A" link near the top of the A2A web page). Help is available at Help with Searching

• Keyword (or phrase) - in this box put the subject of your enquiry e.g. a person's name, an activity or occupation, etc. You can then skip all other boxes if you wish and click the search button. A search will be performed to match your keywords/phrase to text in the descriptions of the archives.
• to restrict your search to The Second World War Experience Centre records use the Location of Archives drop-down menu
• you can further restrict your search by English Region
• currently restricting the Date of Archives to any year within the second world war period will return no hits for the Centre's material. We therefore advise you to leave these boxes blank at this time. This problem will be rectified as soon as possible.
• using the Dates of Catalogues restriction is probably most useful if you regularly search for a particular keyword/phrase and are mainly interested in new additions to the archive - if this is not the case then leave this box set to the default position

A2A Results of "Food Rationing" Search for the Centre

As an example, searching for "food" (without quotation marks) restricted to the Centre's records using Location of Archives returns 96 hits. Click on the "96 Hits" link to see a full list of these records. If this is too many you could refine your search by, for example, searching for "food rationing" - this returns 17 hits (numbers correct February 2006).

Searching for "food rationing" without restricting Location of Archives returns a list of all catalogues where hits are found - within this list is an entry for the Centre with 17 hits.

Click on the "17 Hits" link to see a list of the 17 records.

If you want to look at your result in the context of the full relevant catalogue, click on "Catalogue in Full" at the top of the page. All of the Centre's records held by A2A will then be displayed and these may supply additional relevant information. [To find your result on this page you can search using "Ctrl F"]

If you are interested in more information about the records please follow the link at the top of the page which reads "To find out more about the archives described below, contact Second World War Experience Centre". Alternatively return here and go to the Contact Details page.