Search Catalogue

The first step in the workflow: finding a slide to work with. The search form on the home page lets you combine any of the following:

• Organ - e.g. Kidney, Heart, Cortex
• Species - e.g. Human, Rat, Guinea pig
• Stain - e.g. H&E, Silver, Masson
• Keyword - matches metadata, expert contributor notes, and filenames (e.g. "glomeruli", "hair follicle")
• Slide ID - if you already know the exact slide
• Filename - matches part of a slide's filename

All fields you fill in are combined together (a slide has to match every one you've set, not just any one of them).

The quick-filter badges next to the Search button narrow results further to slides that have a particular property. Click a badge to toggle it on or off - any number can be active at once.

ANN

Has annotations.

EXP

Has expert contributor notes.

ZST

Z-stack - the slide has more than one focal plane.

MVI

Multiview - more than one scan was taken from the same physical slide, e.g. two separate scan regions on one specimen. This is about multiple views of the same specimen, not different specimens.

CMP

Comparison slide - more than one slice of the specimen is present, typically stained with different techniques so they can be viewed side by side (e.g. H&E alongside a special stain of an adjacent section).

TSL

Thick-section - a much thicker cut than a modern slide, from an era before microtomes were available to cut the thin, even sections routine today. These are historical remnants of that earlier era of preparation, kept in the collection for their historical value rather than as an example of a typical section.

Once you've found a slide, continue to Review the Metadata.