The Index Terms Pages

About the Page

The Virtual Vietnam Archive Index Pages are provided to assist researchers in finding terms that may be used while searching. Quite simply, the index pages are a listing of all of the words in the Virtual Archive for a specific category. Currently, access is provided to one index through the Virtual Archive Search Page: Collection Titles.

Every donation to the Vietnam Archive is assigned to a collection, usually the donor's name. This Collection Names index is a listing of all of the collections currently available online.

The basic structure of the Index Terms pages is the same as the rest of the Virtual Archive. Please note, due to the size of these indexes, when you click on the link, the page may take a few moments to load. The terms are listed on the page is sets of 20, with a check box in front and followed by a number. This number is the number of times the term appears in the Virtual Archive.

List Terms / Show Near

Due to the size of the indexes, only 20 terms will be displayed on the screen at any given time. To assist with navigation through the index, a search field is provided near the top of the page, under the page title. This search field is labeled"List Terms Near" and is followed by a button labeled"Show Near". To jump ahead in the index, enter a name, a term, or even a single letter and click the Show Near Button. For example, if you want to jump ahead in the index to see collection titles starting with the letter G, enter G in the List Terms Near box and click the button. This will take you to the first term starting with the letter G.

Previous Section / Next Section

Another way to navigate through the index is to use the "Previous Section" / "Next Section" buttons. These are located in the left column on the page. Clicking "Next Section" takes you to the next set of 20 terms. "Previous Section" takes you back 20. If you are at the beginning of the index, then the "Previous Section" button will not appear. If you are at the end of the index, the "Next Section" button will not appear.

Selecting / Paste Term(s) / Return w/o Pasting

To select a term to use in your search, click the checkbox next to the term. You can select multiple terms by clicking on more than one checkbox. Once your terms are selected, click the "Paste Term(s)" link in the left column. This will return you to the search page and enter your terms automatically into the appropriate search field. Multiple terms will be separated by semicolons, meaning that the search engine will search for records that have either the first term, or the second term, etc... If you do not find a search term that you wish to use, click the "Return w/o Pasting" link in the left column. This will return you to the Search Page without adding any terms to your search.

Search Links

On the Collection Titles Index Page, all of the index terms are underlined. This means you can click on the term and be taken directly to a Browse Page listing all of the entries for that term, bypassing the search page. Please remember that if the number in parentheses that follows the term is large, then it will take time to load the results. You may want to paste the term into the search page, and enter other terms to narrow the search down to see fewer results.

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