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Jun 25, 2026

Heratio Help Center article. Category: Public Access.

Ask the Collection User Guide

Overview

Ask the Collection lets you put a plain-language question to the catalogue and get an answer that is built from the actual records held in the collection. Rather than returning a list of links for you to read through, it reads across the relevant catalogue descriptions and composes a short, written answer, pointing back to the records it drew on. It is ideal when you want a quick, grounded summary instead of running several searches yourself. Open it at /ask-the-collection.

What it does

Ask the Collection is a corpus-grounded question-and-answer tool. "Corpus-grounded" means the answer is assembled from the collection's own catalogue records, not from general world knowledge:

  • You type a question in everyday language, for example "What records cover harbour construction in the 1950s?" or "Which collections mention textile manufacturing?"
  • The tool finds the catalogue records most relevant to your question.
  • It composes a written answer based on what those records say, and shows you which records it used so you can open them and verify.

Because the answer is grounded in the catalogue, it stays close to what your institution has actually described, and it points you straight to the source records.

How to use it

  1. Go to /ask-the-collection (also reachable from the Explore hub at /explore).
  2. Type your question in plain language. Full sentences work well, for example "Are there any photographs of the old market square?"
  3. Submit the question and wait a moment for the answer to be composed.
  4. Read the answer, then follow the linked source records to confirm the detail and explore further.
  5. Refine and ask again if you want to narrow or broaden the scope.

Good to know

  • Answers are drawn from your catalogue records. If a topic is not described in the catalogue, the tool may report that it found nothing, rather than inventing an answer. That is by design.
  • Always check the cited records before relying on or citing an answer. Treat the written response as a helpful summary and a pointer, and confirm specifics against the underlying records.
  • The quality of an answer depends on how fully the records are described. Richer catalogue descriptions produce better answers.
  • Access rules still apply - records you are not permitted to see are not used to build your answer.