User’s Guide

Simple Search

The Merhav (Primo) online catalogue of the National Library of Israel allows you to search the rich corpus of publications which are included in the Index to Yiddish Periodicals. You also have the choice of starting a basic search from our website. The results will be shown in Merhav and from there you can continue to refine your search. Merhav provides tools to allow users to save query terms for subsequent sessions and to quote, save and export search results.

Getting Started — Searching

You can start a search simply by entering a word or words in the search box and clicking on the search button. Please note: the search engine of the Index recognizes only Yiddish/Hebrew letters. Special Yiddish diacritical marks, for example, אַ  or אָ  are ignored by the search engine and are thus unnecessary.

Results are diplayed in a default order but you can choose to sort the results in an alternative order, for example, by date, name of author or title.

Refining the Search

In order to locate the results that you are looking for it is often necessary to refine your search and limit the number of diplayed items.

For example, Merhav allows you to see only results which provide direct access to an online digital copy of the printed material. It also allows you to filter your search according to author, genre, subject, year of publication, or title of the periodical.

Advanced Search

The advanced search allows you to choose the field in which the word you are searching for will appear, for example, author, title, genre, subject, publication, etc. You can also limit your search to a certain period.
Merhav also recognizes the common Boolean search criteria (AND, OR, NOT).

Tips for successful searches

There are many helpful tips to keep in mind when searching. Only one example is provided below. A full explanation of tips can be found in Yiddish. See full list of tips in Yiddish.

Term expansion: You can use an asterisk (*) at the end of a word stem to find plural forms and other variations on that word. Example: searching for האנט* will match האַנטפֿאַס, האַנטאַרבעט, האַנטעכער.

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Further details:
Since the Merhav (Primo) system is being used widely in libraries around the world, more detailed user guides in English are easy to find. For instance here and here. Please keep in mind that not all the features of a library catalog are implemented in the IYP database.