The Cross-Search box searches upon Name and Subject information as well as the full descriptive parts of records at the same time.

Name and Subject searches will each only look in the respective name and subject parts of the database. A Cross-Search will look in both of these at the same time. It will also examine all of the descriptive information about an organisation or service. This facilitates a more comprehensive examination of records for information that may not be covered by the controlled list of subject headings used in subject searches.

The way that information is entered at the search screen is important. Please have a look at the notes on how to search effectively in the Search Basics section.

Following are examples of the kinds of searches you can do using the Cross-Search box on the Search page.

Cross-Searches will look in lots of places in the database at once. They do not, however, discriminate between different meanings of words. For example, a Subject search on the word Falls will identify organisations or services that relate to the topic of "Falls Prevention". A Cross-search on the same word will find all of these organisations, but it will also find others that happen to have the word "falls" within their description. Thus the record with the following text in its description will also be found: