Keyword searching
Multiple words are generally treated as terms that should all be present. A search for bear moose chicken, for example, looks for material connected with all three words. You normally do not need to add “and.”
Short words can occur inside unrelated longer words. If a search is too broad, place spaces around the exact word inside quotation marks.
" actor "" moose " " bear "Search for an exact phrase
Place quotation marks around a phrase whose words must occur together. Searching for “African Americans” targets that exact phrase, while searching without quotes can return pages where the individual words occur separately.
Specific names of cities, counties, towns, places, people, institutions, and events will often provide useful results. If results are too broad, add one distinctive term at a time.
Find a community
For a specific city, town, plantation, or named township, join the word find directly to the place name without spaces. Do not add labels such as “city of,” “town of,” “plantation,” or “township.”
findportlandfindfortkentfindbenedictaA search for the place name alone may return every article that mentions it. The joined find form is intended to target the community entry.
Find a coded township
Remove spaces from the township code and place find before it. Coded townships can also be browsed under the government category.
findt2r1welsfindt10r8welsfindt2r3bkpekrSearch by county or subject
The format county: Penobscot narrows results toward documented communities in that county. The broader phrase Penobscot County can also return other articles connected with the county.
Broad terms such as historic may produce many results. Categories can be more effective for a defined subject—for example, History → Forts or Society → Health.
Images and map details
Many article images can be opened at a larger size. When available, an “@” marker in a caption indicates that location coordinates accompany the image. Map labels may appear when a pointer hovers over a marked location.
Citing an entry
A concise citation should identify Mainean Encyclopedia, the title of the entry, and the date on which you accessed it. Add the entry URL when the citation style or assignment requires one.
