No, you do not have to log in. If you are not logged in you can do everything that you can if you are logged in. However if you save a search, the search will only be saved until you shut down the browser. If you log in, saved searches will be available next time you go to the site and log in. Your search history will also be saved permanently.

You can use the same user name and password that you use to log in to our NESSTAR service. If you do not have a user name and password just fill out this form to register, and you will be sent a password by email. Registration is quick and free.

After you log out, any searches you save will only be retained until you shut down your browser. You search history will also only record searches in your current session.

To conduct a simple search (only one field, no date filter) click the Search link in the tree at left. Enter your search terms in the boxes, and select a field. For some fields, a thesaurus will appear when you select the field. You can select items from the thesaurus by clicking on them. The item will be copied to whichever query box you last clicked on. If you click the "match synonyms" box the search engine will search for synonyms of query terms as well as query terms.

Once you have entered your query terms click the Submit Query button to submit your query. Datasets and variables that match your query will appear in the tree at left under Last Search. Click on a dataset or variable to see information about the item. To see more datasets or variables click the "More Hits" link.

Click the Advanced Search link in the tree at left. Enter your query terms in the boxes at the top and select a field from the drop-down list. If you want to filter your results by date enter your dates in the second set of boxes. Click the Add To Query button to add what you have entered to the query. Then repeat the process as many times as you like. This allows you to search on more than one field for example. When you have finished click the Submit Query button to submit your query.

Yes. After conducting a search click the right mouse button (Macintosh users will need to use command button + click and Opera users control key + leftb> click). Select Save Search from the pop up menu and enter the name you wish to save the search under. Note that when selecting from the pop up menu you need to click on the text of the item you want - if you click on the icon nothing will happen.

Right click on the search under the Saved Searches link in the tree at left (Macintosh users will need to use command key + click and Opera users Control + left click). Select Rename Search or Delete Search from the pop up menu and (if renaming) enter the name you wish to save the search under. Note that when selecting from the pop up menu you need to click on the text of the item you want - if you click on the icon nothing will happen.

Right click on the Variables item within a search (Macintosh users will need to use command key + click and Opera users control key + left click). Select Filter Variables. A list of datasets will appear (these are the datasets matched by the search). If you select a dataset the Variables list will be filtered so that only those variables that were matched by the search and which belong to the selected dataset are shown.

To see all variables matched by the search right click on the Variables item again and select Show All.

Click the Home link in the tree at left, and follow the link to NESSTAR in the home page.

On the dataset/variable information page (which you get when you click on a dataset or variable in a search or in browse mode) the is an "Open in Nesstar" link at the top of the page (next to the title) and button at the bottom. Click this to open the dataset or variable in NESSTAR.

Click the Browse link in the tree at left, then click the ASSDA link. You will be shown the folders at the top level of the catalogue. Click on to see folders within it. When you to the lowest level you will see a list of datasets. Click any dataset to see a list of variables.

If you are browsing through the catalogue you will be shown a list of variables when you click on a dataset. If you have conducted a search and are looking at the information page for a dataset hit, the easiest way to see all the variables in the dataset is to open the dataset in NESSTAR by clicking the "Open in NESSTAR" link at the top of the page, or the button at the bottom of the page.

If you conduct a search and click on a variable hit you will not see variable frequencies. However if you click the "Open in NESSTAR" link at the top of the variable information page or the button at the bottom of the page, the variable will be opened in NESSTAR, and you will be able to see variable frequencies, and to include the variable in custom frequency tables (creating tables requires a user name and password - see "I don't have a user name and password. Can I get them?" above).

The ASSDA search facility is guaranteed to work with the following browsers:

• Internet Explorer version 6.0+
• Firefox version 1.5+
• Opera version 9+
• Safari version 2+

The facility will probably work with other browsers, however they have not been extensively tested. Please note that on Opera the pop-up menus do not come up when you right click on a search node or variable node in the tree. To get the pop-up menu on Opera hold down the control key (Windows) or command key (Apple) and click with the left mouse button.

Contact the archive by email at assda@anu.edu.au or by phone on +61 2 6125 4400.