Help:Search

Searching on bahai.media matches your keywords against file names, image captions, and file descriptions. Because this repository is a media archive rather than a text database, content is organized entirely through a hierarchy of categories (by publication, year, decade, location, and subject) rather than pages or subpages.

While the main search bar at the top of every page searches the entire repository by default, you can filter your searches to specific collections, timeframes, or subjects using collection tools or category search parameters.

Using Collection Headers

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Our major publication archives feature an interactive Collection Header at the top of their main category pages, including:

These headers allow you to search within a specific publication without typing any special search syntax:

  • Search this collection: Enter keywords to search only within that publication. If the collection spans multiple decades, you can use the dropdown menu next to the search bar to restrict your search to a specific decade (e.g., 1970s) or leave it on All to search the entire run.
  • Jump to issue: Enter an issue or volume number to navigate directly to the category containing all files extracted from that specific issue.

Under the hood, these tools automatically apply the incategory: and deepcat: qualifiers described below, which you can also use manually in the main search bar for more customized searches.

Searching specific categories (incategory:)

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Files on bahai.media are categorized directly into the specific publication issue, year, and decade in which they appeared, alongside topical categories.

For example, the file File:National Spiritual Assembly of Nepal, 1972.png was published in Bahá’í News (Issue 495) in 1972, and later reproduced in The Bahá’í World (Volume 15) in 1976. It is automatically assigned to the following categories:

To restrict a keyword search to any category that directly contains files, add incategory:"Category Name" to your search query:

  • Nepal incategory:"Bahá'í News in the 1970s"
    Searches for Nepal only within images published in Bahá’í News during the 1970s.
  • convention incategory:"Images from publications in 1972"
    Searches for convention across all images from any publication printed in 1972.
  • incategory:"Baha'i News No 495"
    Leaving out keywords will simply return all files inside that category in the search results.

Note on spelling and diacritics: Category names must match exactly. Some older category structures use standard apostrophes and no diacritics (e.g., Baha'i News), while others use typographic apostrophes and diacritics (e.g., The Bahá’í World). If a manual search returns no results, check the exact spelling at the bottom of a file page or browse Category:Categories by year.

Searching category trees (deepcat:)

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Broad parent categories—such as Category:Baha'i News, Category:Houses of Worship, or Category:Conferences by year—generally do not contain files directly; instead, they hold subcategories (organized by decade, year, or location) which in turn hold the files.

Using incategory: on a parent category will return nothing if no files sit directly at the top level. To search a parent category and its subcategories simultaneously, use deepcat:"Category Name":

  • Nepal deepcat:"Baha'i News"
    Searches for Nepal across the entire run of Bahá’í News (searching across all decade and issue subcategories).
  • deepcat:"Wilmette Temple construction by year"
    Searches across all yearly subcategories related to the construction of the Wilmette House of Worship.

See Category:Categories by year for a full list of topical parent categories that are broken down by year (such as Bahá’í holy places by year, Bahá’í World Center by year, National Conventions by year, and Summer schools by year).

Combining and excluding categories

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You can combine multiple incategory: and deepcat: statements to intersect topics and timeframes, or place a minus sign (-) in front of a qualifier to exclude specific categories from your results.

  • Intersecting two categories:
    incategory:"Images from publications in the 1950s" deepcat:"Houses of Worship"
    Finds images of Houses of Worship that appeared in publications during the 1950s.
  • Intersecting by event and year:
    incategory:"Conferences in 1968" incategory:"Bahá'í News in 1968"
    Finds images from 1963 conferences that were specifically published in Bahá’í News that same year.
  • Excluding a collection or category:
    Nepal incategory:"Images from publications in the 1970s" -deepcat:"The Bahá’í World"
    Searches for Nepal in 1970s publications, but excludes any files categorized under The Bahá’í World (useful for filtering out later reprints when looking for original periodicals).
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