Database Help

CALL NUMBERS, FORMAT

Items in the Albert Einstein Archives are identified by Call Numbers. Since the original "Dukas" Archive (see the ABOUT page) was microfilmed in the seventies into 61 reels of microfilm, these Call Numbers are made up of two parts: the number of the reel where the item is found on the microfilm and the sequential number within that reel. Hence the item with Call Nr 28-010 was microfilmed into Reel 28 and is the tenth document within that reel. Some items cover more than one image on the microfilm reel but nevertheless have one single Call Nr. If reference to individual pages or parts of a Call Nr. is necessary, these are indicated by a period. Several items in this database have Call Nrs with a Reel part higher than 61. This pertains to items published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein that were not part of the original Einstein Archives. It also holds for the scanned items from the Schwadron and Yahuda collections of the Jewish National & and University Library.

DATES and DATE RANGES

Since many items in the Einstein Archives can presently be dated only within a certain range of uncertainty, each item is assigned an earliest date and a latest date. For items that are unambiguously dated, the two fields contain the same information. For completed undated items, the date range may be many years or decades. All dates are entered in the US format: mm/dd/yyyy.

SEARCHABLE FIELDS

The basic search and the ANYTEXT function on the advanced search are searching the following fields: author, receiver, title, first line, contents, from place, to place. It should be noted that a systematic revision of the original data was initiated only recently and that, in particular, the contents field does not contain any information for the majority of items.

LANGUAGE, SPECIAL CHARACTERS, UMLAUTE

The database entries contain entries in both the German and the English language with no systematic or consistent distinction. Also, special characters in the database were not systematically entered. This holds, in particular, for diacritics (Umlaute). Hence, if you search for relativity, you should be aware that the following spellings may occur: relativity, relativitaet, relativität. In order to search for all three spellings, you should enter relativit in the basic search form. The advanced search form allows for more sophisticated truncation and wild card searches. All search functions do not distinguish capital and small characters.

DESCRIPTIVE CODES

Items that are published in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein were assigned a standardized physical description which is displayed on the "Publication Information" page. Items that are not yet published are described by a descriptive code that is displayed in the full database record for that item. The following table gives list of the most frequently used abbreviations:

Readex Catalog

If an item is related to a publication by Einstein, the database record displays the number of the particular publication, as listed in the Bibliographical Checklist and Index to the Published Writings of Albert Einstein. This bibliography of Einstein's writings was compiled in 1960 as an index for the Microprint edition of his writings issued by the Readex Microprint Corporation.

USEFUL HINTS

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