HSP Discover

Home HSP Discover

HSP Discover

Discover, HSP’s online catalog, contains records describing printed materials, archival collections, and digital records associated with our collections. It is a researcher’s first port of call for discovery of HSP’s 21 million items. New functionality, enhancements, and data updates in this version make finding the information you’re looking for easier than ever before.

This new Discover sports a new record source, the Names Database, containing more than 258,000 names extracted from HSP Encounters and other digital collections (please see below for more information about HSP Encounters). The Names Database allows researchers to search more easily for specific individuals. Place and date information (when it is available) is displayed to help distinguish persons in initial search results. This new database is a boon for genealogists and family historians especially, many of whom often begin their research with little more than a family member’s name.

The new version also includes improved book bag and social functions, and encourages a more social researching experience. Searchers may use the public list function to share records with friends, family, and other researchers. They may create private lists to help keep track of their findings. For example:

  • Genealogists investigating their family history can now update their family members on their latest research;
  • Educators may select a group of records relating to a lesson plan or classroom theme;
  • Students can then search for and comment upon these records;

Tagging and commenting enable users to improve HSP’s records and to increase their findability. They may even add new knowledge to the system. For example:

  • Genealogists may tag the records that relate to their family and elaborate on that relationship in a comment;
  • Educators may tag and comment records to help students identify and engage with historical figures and events;
  • Students may voice opinions about the themes and issues raised in a record’s content, or add cataloguing terms of their own choosing.
  • Discover now features a responsive display that allows researchers to more easily explore our collections on a smartphone or tablet.

To access Discover, click here. To use the social functions of the software, login to Discover (located at the top right of the screen) with your HSP website/PAL username and password.