Archive Search

Archive Search Guide

Search strategy, syntax, and best practices for the Riksarkivet search tools (search_transcribed and search_metadata).

Tool Selection

Query Syntax — What Actually Works

The search API is a plain free-text engine, NOT a full Solr/Lucene endpoint. Every syntax claim below is verified against the live API.

NOT supported — never use:

• AND / OR / NOT / | / parentheses. There is no boolean parser. The words AND/OR/NOT are searched as literal text: and alone matches 1.6M volumes, so pest AND smitta returns ~1.64M junk hits instead of the 33-document conjunction pest smitta. The server rejects such queries.
• OR-logic has no syntax at all. Run one search per alternative term instead: search troll*, then häx*, and merge what you learn.
• Quoted phrases on transcribed text. They always return 0 — even a phrase that occurs verbatim and adjacent on a page ("Venerisk smitta") yields no hits. Never quote in search_transcribed; use plain multi-term search (kyrka stöld = both words anywhere in the volume). In search_metadata, quotes work only for reference codes: "SE/RA/720660" lists an archive's volumes, but quoted title phrases return 0.
• Proximity "a b"~10. Not honored — returns 0 like any quoted phrase.
• Boosting (term^4). Unverified; adds nothing. Leave it out.

Transcription Quality — Why Fuzzy Search Matters

All searchable text is AI-generated using HTR (Handwritten Text Recognition) and OCR models. These transcriptions contain recognition errors: misread characters, merged or split words, and garbled passages — especially in older, damaged, or poorly legible documents.

Always use fuzzy search (~) by default to compensate for transcription errors:

• stockholm~1 finds "Stockholm", "Stockholn", "Stookholm" (common HTR misreads)
• trolldom~1 finds "trolldom", "trolldoin", "trolldorn"
• präst~1 finds "präst", "prast", "prest"

Without fuzzy search, you will miss many relevant results because the transcription of the exact word you're looking for may contain errors.

Rule of thumb: Use ~1 (edit distance 1) for short words, ~2 for longer words or very old/damaged documents. For stem variants use a wildcard instead: troll*.

Search Strategy for Maximum Discovery

1. Start with transcribed text: search_transcribed(keyword, offset=0) for initial hits
2. Check metadata too: search_metadata to find documents by title, person, or place
3. Paginate: Increase offset by 50 (50, 100, 150...) to discover more matches
4. Explore related terms — one search each (this replaces OR):
   • Historical variants and spellings (e.g., "trolldom", then "häxa", then "trollkona")
   • Synonyms and related concepts (e.g., "satan", then "djäfvul" for devil-related terms)
   • Different word forms (e.g., "trolleri", then "trollkonst")
   • Period-appropriate terminology and archaic spellings
5. Narrow with more terms: adding a word tightens the search — pest smitta returns only documents containing both
6. Drill down: Note reference codes and page numbers from results, then use browse_document to examine interesting matches in full

Old Swedish Spelling Variants

Common spelling pairs to search for — always try both modern and archaic forms (as separate searches, or covered by one wildcard/fuzzy term):

General letter drift: ä↔æ/e, ö↔ø/o, v↔f/fv/w, k↔ck/c — ? and ~1 absorb most of it.

Best Practices

• Wildcards for word variations: troll* finds "trolldom", "trolleri", "trollkona"
• Fuzzy for AI transcription errors: Stockholm~1 catches HTR/OCR misreads
• Multi-term to require co-occurrence: kyrka stöld silver = volumes containing all three
• Year filtering: Use year_min/year_max to narrow time periods
• Sorting: sort="timeAsc" for earliest mentions, sort="timeDesc" for most recent
• Metadata search: Use dedicated name and place parameters in search_metadata for targeted person/place searches instead of putting everything in keyword