Search Index to Notre Dame Observer This program searches the index for whatever words you indicate. It is not case-sensitive, and it will find the words you type regardless of the order in which they appear. If you type THEODORE MARTIN HESBURGH it will also find records that say HESBURGH, THEODORE MARTIN. If, however, you type HESBURGH, THEODORE MARTIN it will eliminate records that lack the comma after HESBURGH. A more sensible search: HESBURGH THEODORE (which puts the less common name first, omits the comma, and does not require that every record have the middle name.

When you search for hyphenated words, you should substitute a space for the hyphen. Search for ANTI SEMITISM, not for ANTI-SEMITISM. If you truncate words, the program will find all records that have the letters you have included. If you type SHEED FRAN it will find FRANCIS SHEED, FRANK SHEED, and FRANK SHEEDY.

Generally the program displays only the lines that contain the words you type. If you want to see the context in which each line appears, you can use the plus sign and a digit from 1 to 9. If you type WARD LEO +1, the program will display one line before and one line after each line that contains his name. If you type WARD LEO +9, the program will display nineteen lines for each. This feature helps make sense of index entries that run to several lines.

Every semester one of the student workers in the archives indexes the Observer. Before we had computers in the archives, the index existed in three-ring binders and in a card file. Much of this earlier data has become part of the computerized index. For some years, however, we are doing the job of conversion in stages, so that we presently have only headings (and not the full index entries) online. If the index says "see 1974/75," for example, it means that we have to look in the three-ring binder for that academic year. If the index returns such an entry, you need to come to the archives (or write or phone) for more specific information. If, however, the index says "1969-70," it means that the index does contain more specific information, which you can see by increasing the number of lines of context displayed, as explained above.