BBC North West Regional Documentaries: Search Help
This page provides guidance about searching the BBC NW Documentaries catalogue. Advice is given on how to take your enquiry further, having searched the catalogue.
Keyword Search
If you have a particular subject, person or place of interest you can conduct a keyword search by entering relevant terms or a key phrase, such as 'trams' or 'manchester airport', in the keywords box. This will search the individual news item descriptions. You can enter a single term for a broad search, or several words to narrow your search down. If too many results are returned for you to look through, use the 'Back' button in your browser to return to the keyword box and add another relevant word to refine your search.
For Example:
The keyword football returned too many results for you to look through, so you could return to the keyword box and enter football manchester united to limit your search to footage of a particular team.
If your search is unsuccessful, or has too few hits, try thinking of alternative words, e.g., instead of the word seaside, try beaches or seafront. It is also helpful to use concrete words rather than abstract terms, e.g., for images conveying 'love', try entering terms such as weddings or dancing.
It is also helpful to use concrete words rather than abstract terms, e.g., for images conveying 'love', try entering terms such as "weddings" or "dancing"
Searching By Dates
Enter a single year, e.g. 1975 or to search within a date range enter 1975...1980. We hold BBC North West Documentary material for the years 1966 to 1983.
How to take your enquiry further
If, having searched the online catalogue, you would like to take your enquiry further, it is important to note the film numbers of the titles in which you are interested. This can be found when looking at the record detail for a title. Your enquiry can be submitted or by contacting a member of our access team by telephone 0161-247 3097. For more information see our Comments and Enquiries page.