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BMAGiC Site Help

BMAGiC is Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery's online database, providing you with information about our collections. To find out about opening hours, current exhibitions, volunteering or other information please return to www.bmag.org.uk.

Each object in our online database has a page on this site with information about it, it's history and related themes and objects. You can either browse the objects by collection name or search for particular objects. Every month we add more images of objects for you to look at.

How to Browse the Collections

The browse page contains a list of all the collections, organised by theme. In addition, randomly selected objects are displayed under the Featured Objects heading on several pages throughout this site to give you an idea of what is contained within the collections.

As you view the objects you will see much of the information about each object appears as a link, for example lists of associated places. You can click on these links to see all other objects that share the same information.

If you wish then you can see a larger selection of the objects at random.

How to Search the Collections

Go to the search page to search. There are two ways to search: the quick search and the advanced search.

Quick Search

The quick search enables you to search all the text associated with each object for specific words. If you enter more than one word then only objects that are associated with all the words you specify are returned.

Advanced Search

The advanced search enables you to be more specific about what you are looking for. It may be useful to use the advanced search if the quick search returns too many results. You can choose to search the following types of information:

  • Who - Search against the object maker, credits, reign and associated people/organisations.
  • What - Search against the object name/title, school, medium, material and other aspects of the object detail.
  • Where - Search against the object place of origin and/or excavation.
  • When - Search against the object date and period.
  • Material - Search against the object material field.
  • Theme - Search against the object theme field.
  • Collection - Choose to limit your search to objects in a particular collection.

Searches for who, what and where also search against the object label text.

Search Tips

If you get no or few results, try making your search more general or searching for different words that have the same meaning.
If you have entered more than one word for your search then objects will only be returned if they are associated with all of the words you specified, so try searching for fewer words at once.
If you have specified more than one criteria on the advanced search, try searching for fewer criteria.

If your search returns too many results, consider making your search more specific. You can use the advanced search to limit your search to specific types of information about an object, and additionally limit your search to a particular collection.

Other Website Features

This site provides the following features to help you use the site. Please note that these features require cookies to be enabled on your browser, and will be available to everyone using your computer account. They are therefore most useful if you have your own computer or personal account on the computer that you are using.

Recently Viewed Items

Once you have started to view object detail pages a list of your most recently viewed objects will appear on most pages providing you with an easy way to return to what you have just been looking at.

My Bookmarks

This site contains a bookmark feature that lets you store a record of objects that are of particular interest to you, allowing you to quickly find them later.

If you require more help

Please contact us if you require further help.

My Bookmarks

You currently have no objects bookmarked.
You can bookmark objects to help you find them again easily when using this computer.