How to Find things in the CTDA

This page is under construction.... 

The CTDA has over 3.5 million items from more than 90 organizations, groups, and people across Connecticut.  There are items about all sorts of topics, not just Connecticut history, but from all over the world. It can be intimidating to be confronted with a blank search box on the front page. This page will help you discover just what you are looking for in the CTDA's collections. 

A Reminder

Remember, the CTDA's collections are owned and managed by its members. Each member may have its own way of organizing and describing its own collections. This allows organizations to focus on their main audiences, but can make it more difficult to find what you are looking for across the entire repository.

What are you looking for?

There are two basic ways to look for things in digital libraries like the CTDA. You either have a specific thing in mind (often called a known object search) or you want to know more about a more general idea or concept. 

If you have a specific thing in mind, it is often easiest to type that term in the general search box: 

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Once the search finishes, the search results page lets you filter and sort to let you narrow down the results. 

This way you can narrow your search down by subject, name, date, format, or any number of other criteria. 

Or if you want to know "about something"  You can browse the collection.