Notes on Using GARD

Searching GARD

Each individual table can be searched by entering search criteria in the fields shown when you click on the table link. Searches are case-insensitive.

An 'OR' facility does exist - use the pipe symbol "|". However, beware of using unnecessary spaces. A search for "crokinole|pool" will find items that "crokinole | pool" does not.

These are real-text searches and do not work in the same way as search engines. So if you search Examples for "quail" you will find a game called "Quails" but you will also get several games called "Squails".

In the same vein, if you search for 'The Journey' in the Game Example 'name' field you will not find a game entitled 'Journey (The)'. A better strategy is to stick to the key words i.e. in this example just search for 'Journey'.

Scanning GARD

The Scan Repositories facility is less specific but very powerful. Using the same search technology as above, all relevant fields in all selected tables will be searched for the text entered in the single scan field. Results are produced from all selected tables in a single list. This facility only scans the main repositories, not the core tables.

Repositories

The following table shows the existing main repositories of data in GARD. These are the outer tables with the primary information:

Table	Data	Current Access
Books	Book lists from various sources	Publicly Available.
Examples	Real, actual antique games mostly from private collections. Also includes one-off examples of games obtained from random sources. Many beautiful pictures.	Most of this is publicly available but pictures of games taken at one Museum are not available to the general public for legal reasons.
Registrations	Trademarks and Design Registrations from the National Archives, Patents derived from various sources.	Data is publicly available but pictures are not due to National Archive publishing restrictions.
Copyright Registrations	Copyright registrations held at the National Archives 1842 - 1912	Limited access while data is still being worked on. Public and participant access may occur at a later date.
Adverts	Adverts from catalogues and any other source.	Vast majority are publicly available
Artworks	Works of art - painting, tapestries, sculpture etc.	Participants-only for now

The outer tables surround and link to the the core tables:

Table	Data	Current Access
Game Names	Each Game Name entry is linked to entries within the various outer tables. As at October 2018, much of this data has been generated automatically so is not 100% reliable.	Publicly Available
Makers	Each Maker is linked to entries within the various outer tables. As at October 2018, this data is roughly 90% accurate. More work is being done to make it very reliable using the expertise of our members.	Publicly Available
Collections	Collections link to example records where we have catalogued them.	Publicly Available

The front-end source code for GARD and the data schema have been written by James Masters. Source code and Schema are freely given to be used for the purposes of GARD for perpetuity. Anybody wishing to use the source code for any other reason whatsoever, should first contact him.

The back-end database for GARD is MySQL, an open-source relational database.