| name | archive-search |
| description | How to query the Riksarkivet search tools — load BEFORE calling search_transcribed or search_metadata. Picks the right tool and builds Solr queries with the fuzzy, wildcard, and old-Swedish-spelling tactics that AI transcription errors demand. Use when the user wants to search, find, or look up documents, people, places, or events in the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet) — including terms like trolldom, häxprocess, bouppteckning, or dombok.
|
Archive Search Guide
Search strategy, syntax, and best practices for the Riksarkivet search tools
(search_transcribed and search_metadata).
Tool Selection
| Research goal | Tool | Key params |
|---|
| Find text mentions in court records | search_transcribed | keyword (Solr syntax) |
| Find a person by name | search_metadata | name="Svensson" |
| Find documents from a place | search_metadata | place="Norrköping" |
| Find documents by title/type | search_metadata | keyword="bouppteckning" |
| Church records, estate inventories | search_metadata | keyword + place (not AI-transcribed) |
| Read full page content | browse_document | reference_code, pages |
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. Combine with wildcards for maximum coverage:
(troll*~1 OR häx*~1).
Search Strategy for Maximum Discovery
- Start with transcribed text:
search_transcribed(keyword, offset=0) for initial hits
- Check metadata too:
search_metadata to find documents by title, person, or place
- Paginate: Increase offset by 50 (50, 100, 150...) to discover more matches
- Explore related terms: Search for similar/related words to gather comprehensive context
- Historical variants and spellings (e.g., "trolldom" + "häxa" + "trollkona")
- Synonyms and related concepts (e.g., "satan" + "djäfvul" for devil-related terms)
- Different word forms (e.g., "trolleri" + "trollkonst" for witchcraft variants)
- Period-appropriate terminology and archaic spellings
- Drill down: Note reference codes and page numbers from results, then use
browse_document to examine interesting matches in full
Critical Search Rules
- Always group Boolean queries with parentheses:
((skatt* OR guld*) AND (stöld* OR stul*)) — omitting outer parens returns 0 results
- Use fuzzy search for AI transcription errors: All text is AI-generated and contains recognition errors.
((stöld~2 OR tjufnad~2) AND (silver* OR guld*)) catches misreads and misspellings
- Account for old Swedish spelling: Historical documents use archaic forms.
(((präst* OR prest*) OR (kyrko* OR kyrck*)) AND ((silver* OR silfv*) OR (guld* OR gull*)))
Search Syntax Quick Reference
| Syntax | Example | Meaning |
|---|
| Exact term | Stockholm | Find exact word |
| Wildcard | Stock*, St?ckholm, *holm | Match patterns (* = many chars, ? = one) |
| Fuzzy | Stockholm~ or Stockholm~1 | Similar words (edit distance) |
| Proximity | "Stockholm trolldom"~10 | Two terms within N words |
| Boolean AND | (Stockholm AND trolldom) | Both terms required |
| Boolean OR | (Stockholm OR Göteborg) | Either term |
| Boolean NOT | (Stockholm NOT trolldom) | Exclude term |
| Boosting | Stockholm^4 trol* | Increase relevance weight |
| Complex | ((troll* OR häx*) AND (Stockholm OR Göteborg)) | Combine operators |
Old Swedish Spelling Variants
Common spelling pairs to search for — always try both modern and archaic forms:
| Modern | Archaic / Variant | Context |
|---|
| präst | prest | Priest |
| silver | silfver, silfv | Silver |
| guld | gull | Gold |
| kyrka | kyrcka, kyrck | Church |
| kvinna | qvinna, qwinna | Woman |
| stöld | stöld, tiufnad, tjufnad | Theft |
| häxa | häxa, hexa | Witch |
| trolldom | trolldom, trulldom | Witchcraft |
| djävul | djäfvul, diefvul | Devil |
| ä | æ, e | Vowel variant |
| ö | ø, o | Vowel variant |
| v | f, fv, w | Consonant variant |
| k | ck, c | Consonant variant |
Proximity Search
Proximity search finds two terms within a specified word distance of each other.
Rules
- Always wrap both terms in quotes:
"term1 term2"~N (correct) vs term1 term2~N (wrong)
- Only 2 terms work reliably:
"kyrka stöld"~10 (correct) vs "kyrka silver stöld"~10 (unreliable)
- Distance:
~3 = tight, ~10 = paragraph-level, ~50 = page-level
Working Examples
Crime & Punishment:
"tredje stöld"~5 # Third-time theft
"dömd hänga"~10 # Sentenced to hang
"inbrott natt*"~5 # Burglary at night
"kyrka stöld"~10 # Church theft
Values & Items:
"hundra daler"~3 # Hundred dalers
"stor* stöld*"~5 # Major theft
"guld* ring*"~10 # Gold ring
"silver* kalk*"~10 # Silver chalice
Complex Combinations (Boolean outside quotes):
("kyrka stöld"~10 OR "kyrka tjuv*"~10) AND 17*
("inbrott natt*"~5) AND (guld* OR silver*)
("första resan" AND stöld*) OR ("tredje stöld"~5)
Troubleshooting
If proximity search returns no results:
- Check your quotes — must wrap both terms in
"..."
- Reduce to 2 terms — drop extra words from the phrase
- Try exact terms first — before adding wildcards
- Increase distance — try
~10 instead of ~3
- Simplify wildcards — use wildcard on one term only
Reliability by Pattern
| Pattern | Example | Reliability |
|---|
| Exact + Exact | "hundra daler"~3 | Most reliable |
| Exact + Wildcard | "inbrott natt*"~5 | Reliable |
| Wildcard + Wildcard | "stor* stöld*"~5 | Sometimes works |
Layering Strategy
Build from simple to complex, verifying results at each step:
Step 1: "kyrka stöld"~10
Step 2: ("kyrka stöld"~10 OR "kyrka tjuv*"~10)
Step 3: (("kyrka stöld"~10 OR "kyrka tjuv*"~10) AND 17*)
Step 4: (("kyrka stöld"~10 OR "kyrka tjuv*"~10) AND 17*) AND (guld* OR silver*)
Best Practices
- Wildcards for word variations:
troll* finds "trolldom", "trolleri", "trollkona"
- Fuzzy for AI transcription errors:
Stockholm~1 catches HTR/OCR misreads
- 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
