General searches
Stock replies for various general collections enquiries. You may also want to add a link to a relevant keyword search to help get them started.
Dear [name],
The best way for you to find out more about [research topic] is to search the online catalogue, which includes material from all of our collections including library, archives, manuscripts and visual material. We advise that you conduct a few word searches that relate to your research topic, starting broad and moving towards more specific terms as you hone your results.
You can use the filters to search by date, subject, language and genre, and you can limit the results to online material only.
I hope this helps with your research,
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
Dear [name],
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
As your search field is quite broad, I suggest you make a list of some key words that relate to your research and enter them into our online catalogue. You can either enter them individually for broader searches or all together to narrow down to items that contain all the keywords in the record description.
From there, you can use the various filters above the list of results to filter by format, date, location, subject, type/technique, contributor and language. Clicking on All Filters gives you an overview of all the options within these filters.
If you’d rather just jump in and start browsing records, most also contain subjects you can click on to automatically search our collections for that term.
Searching and filtering by subjects like this can also be helpful for highlighting other keywords relevant to your topic, leading you to other useful material.
I hope this helps with your research,
Yours sincerely,
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
Dear [name],
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
To search just for archive collections, you can enter a search term into our online catalogue, and then filter by format for ‘Archives and Manuscripts’. Click on a result to view it within its archive collection.
Each catalogue record will show a bar on the left-hand side listing everything in the archive collection; you can open and close parts of this list by clicking on the arrow symbols or go to the records themselves by clicking on the text.
Only item-level records can be requested – these can be identified by the appearance of the Request item button:
[Consider adding text on requesting material if helpful]
For more information on searching archives at Wellcome Collection, please see the Archive Guide on our website.
I hope this helps with your research,
Yours sincerely
[Name and job title]
[Current standard Wellcome signature]
Dear [name],
Thank you for contacting Wellcome Collection.
We recommend using a range of word searches that relate to your research topic, starting broad and moving towards more specific terms as you hone your results.
You can also use the subject filter in the catalogue to produce all results relating to a particular subject.
While we do not hold the records relating to [xyz institute or individual], it may be worth looking at the catalogue entries for [related insititute or individual] as they may contain relevant material, or provide clues to other institutions or individuals who may be of interest to your research topic.
I hope this is useful for your research.
Best wishes,
[Name and signature]
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