How to order or enquire about maps and books.

Use the search interface in the left side-panel to specify your search. Once you have located an item you are interested in, you may add it to your shopping cart or use the enquire button to send an enquiry to The Prime Meridian. You can add as many items as you wish to your shopping cart and can review and edit its contents by clicking the View Cart button at any time before transmitting your order to us. A copy of your order or enquiry will be e-mailed to you. We will then contact you to confirm the sale and settle payment and delivery details.

How to search for a map, book or print.

Before initiating your search, we recommend that you adjust the settings selected from the drop down pick lists at the lower left. These will not be reset when you click the Clear button.

In addition to a search, you can browse our entire stock or select a catalog to search or browse.

Enter your search criteria using the interface in the left side-frame. As a general rule for criteria, less is better because our system matches most of the words you enter. It is therefore better to leave out any words you feel unsure about. "Cook" will return a more comprehensive list than "James Cook". If your criteria result in a very long list, you can easily refine your search by adding more specific search criteria. The results of your search will appear in the main frame while your search criteria remain visible in the left side-frame.

Our search uses initial strings: "Vancou" will find "Vancouver", "J Cook" will find "Cook, James".

Accented characters are searched intelligently: "trophee eleve" will find "trophée élevé", "Buecher" will find "Bücher" and vice versa, but "Bucher" will not find "Bücher".

Author: if the author's surname is a common one, you should specify one or more initials in addition. If you are uncertain of the spelling or the name is very long, you can search using the initial part of the name: "Dost" will find "Dostoyevsky", "Dostoevskii" etc.

Title: if you are uncertain of the precise title, specify only the part of which you are sure. A few words are usually sufficient: "map japan" will find "A map of the Sea of Japan".

Imprint: publisher and place published details, as well as year of publication, may be specified in this field. Map dealers and map publishers themselves over a period of years can be very inconsistent in the formulation of a publishing house name. Minimise your search words.

Date range: Use four digit numbers for years. Left field populated, right field blank yields all dates from the year specified to the present. Right field populated, left field blank, yields all dates up to the specified year. Two fields populated - maps and books printed between these years, inclusive, will be displayed. For maps and books published in a single year, either enter the year in both fields or enter it in the Imprint field.

Any word(s): a map or book will be returned as a match if the word or words in the Any word(s) field occur anywhere in the entry.

The four drop down pick lists are mostly self-explanatory. These are not reset to default when the Clear button is clicked. "Sort by relevance" is a weighted sort balancing the number of times a criterion occurs against the length of the field contents in which it occurs. "Catalogue" allows you to browse or search our subject-based catalogues.