Source search
The Dashboard provides a single Search screen: one field to look for works in the libraries and to open directly a work whose identifier or address you know. Results remain separate from your personal catalogue until you add them to the Library.
Searching
Search opens from the left-hand rail, under Dashboard.
To the left of the field you choose where to search: all libraries, a single one, or a custom choice. “All” means the libraries that search by words, not aggregators: Europeana and Internet Archive multiply results from other institutions and are added on purpose in the advanced criteria, the first tab of the right-hand column, where sources are ticked one by one. Europeana requires an API key under Settings → Library → Libraries. The chosen sources stay for later searches.
Words go in the field and the control beside it starts the search. The advanced criteria control opens title, author, printer, holding institution, language, material and years. You can also search by fields alone, without free words. Another control starts a new search, clearing words and criteria while keeping the chosen sources.
Above the results you choose the order: by relevance (the order in which libraries answer), by year, by author or by title; results without the value go last. When some source has more results, the command at the bottom of the list asks every source that has them: it stays in place and spins until the new pages have arrived, and the added results come in with a short fade.
Starting a search records its criteria. Each result page from each source is an independent job, so a slow or failed source does not prevent others from returning results. The Sources tab, on the right, has one row per library with state, number of results received, a “retry” command after an error, and the filter to look at that source only. Pausing, restarting and attempts live in the jobs panel. Earlier searches reopen from the Searches tab, which keeps their criteria and results.
Bibliographic criteria
Libraries that can search field by field receive the criteria as written. Today that is Gallica: title, author and printer go to the matching catalogue fields, “manuscript” and “printed” to the document type, years to the date. Searching “Le guidon des capitaines” as a title, Gallica answers with 5 works; the same phrase searched everywhere, page text included, returned 17,427. The free words in the top field remain a general search.
Other sources receive the free words, or title, author and printer when the search uses fields only. The criteria then drop results whose data state something else. Language and holding institution always filter arriving results: Gallica expects language as codes nobody types by hand. The hint next to each criterion tells which of the chosen sources really search it.
When the data needed to decide is missing — a catalogue without a year, a century-only date — the result stays in the list marked incomplete data. A generic value such as text is not converted to “manuscript” or “printed”. Check completed and failed source counts before interpreting an absence of results.
Why a result came up
The searched words are in bold and in the accent color where they appear: in the author, year or title of the row, and, opening the row, in the record data — subjects, description, other contributors. When the library itself says in which section it found them (e-codices, Bodleian, Cambridge, Estense, Institut de France, Vatican), the section appears among the data of the opened record with its own name, for example "Bibliography", and the text around the words.
If the words appear in no field of the record, an icon sits next to the small line: on hover it says that on Gallica they were found only in the transcribed page text, which Gallica's free-word search includes, or more generally that the library found them elsewhere.
The comparison ignores case and accents and accepts a word as the start of a longer one ("achille" finds "Achilles"); two-letter words do not count.
Exact phrase, in the advanced criteria, searches the words in sequence instead of one by one, where the library supports it: Internet Archive today. The hint next to it says which of the chosen libraries honor it; the others search the words as usual.
How libraries search
Libraries do not all search the same way, and results reflect it:
- Gallica with free words looks at the record and the page text: many newspaper or periodical results come up because of a word on some page. Title, author and printer in the criteria search the record only.
- e-codices joins words with "or": Glossa keeps only results containing all of them. A page left empty with more pages after it continues by itself, up to five empty pages in a row; then the "load more" command remains.
- Estense searches the words as a single phrase: with several words Glossa asks for the longest one and keeps results containing all of them, looking at the first 200.
- Munich (MDZ) returns digitised works only.
- Library of Congress answers automated searches with a check only a browser passes; the National Library of Scotland has no queryable search, and Glossa searches a list of titles from its collections. Both stay out of "all" and are chosen by hand.
A search that comes back empty is not kept in the cache: repeated, it asks the library again.
Identity and provenance
Every result shows author, year, place and printer, then the title; in small print the library, pages, and “PDF available” when there is one. Grouping uses exact IIIF manifest identity: the same work arriving from several libraries is a single row with the number of copies, and opening the row lets you choose which copy to use. Similar titles are not enough to merge results. The queried service, holding institution and image service may be different organisations.
Extend to aggregators creates a linked search with the same criteria, restricted to selected aggregators that were not already included.
Opening an identifier or address
The same field accepts a work identifier, a shelfmark or an address. While you type, Glossa checks which libraries recognise it — without any network request — and for each one shows an Open on … row above the results: the command next to it opens the work, ready to add to the Library. Word searches show nothing extra.
An unambiguous form, such as an address or an ARK, is always offered. A bare identifier is offered only when it is a single word with at least one digit: on Gallica any six-letter word has the shape of an identifier, and offering to open “Rabelais” as a work would be noise. A full address also opens with Enter; an IIIF manifest from an institution not listed opens the same way, by pasting its address.
| Source | Keyword search | Direct reference example |
|---|---|---|
| Europeana | Yes, with an API key | Record URL |
| Internet Archive | Yes | archive.org/details/… URL |
| Wellcome Collection | Yes | IIIF manifest URL |
| Vatican Library | Yes | Urb.lat.1779 |
| Gallica | Yes | ARK identifier or Gallica URL |
| e-codices | Yes | bbb-0264 |
| Bodleian Libraries | Yes | Object URL |
| Biblioteca Estense | Yes | Identifier or viewer URL |
| Institut de France | Yes | 17837 |
| Cambridge University Digital Library | Yes | MS-ADD-03996 |
| Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Yes | bsb00026283 |
| Library of Congress | Yes | loc.gov/item/… or loc.gov/resource/… URL |
| Harvard Library | Suspended in this integration | drs:123456 or ids:123456 |
| Heidelberg University Library | No | cpg848 |
| e-rara | No | Record number |
| e-manuscripta | No | Record number |
| National Library of Scotland | Yes, over the titles of the digital collections | The work number, for example 133475158 |
| University of Glasgow | No | The IIIF manifest address, offered by the item page |
| Direct IIIF | No | Full manifest URL |
This table describes capabilities implemented in Glossa, not live service availability. Network restrictions and anti-automation checks can block a request even for a supported source.
Digital copy availability
A bibliographic record does not imply that an accessible digital copy exists. Glossa checks visible results and distinguishes unchecked items, successfully opened items and items explicitly reported as unavailable. Unavailable records remain visible with an unavailable indication. A timeout or rate limit is not treated as evidence that the work is absent.
Keeping results
Add to Library saves the source in the catalogue. Add to workspace also creates a workspace link. Adding the same manifest again does not duplicate the source.
Persistent searches retain criteria, executions and results between sessions and are included in backups. Jobs stop when the application closes. Network response caching is separate from search history: the refresh control rereads the search state, while “retry” and a new search query the sources again.
Searching on the library's own site
Next to every library there is a command that opens its search page in the browser, carrying the words already typed where the library accepts them in the address. It is there for when the internal search is not enough: what Glossa queries is what the library exposes to a program, which rarely matches its whole catalogue. Search on their site, copy the address of the work, paste it here to open it.
The command appears when the result list stays empty, when the results of a single library are being read, and on the page of a work that does not carry the address of its own page.