1. Finding What You Want

As with many other on-line sales sites, there are two ways to find things in Archivale's catalog - Browse and Search:

a. SEARCH. If you are looking for a specific item, searching is the quickest and most reliable way to find it. Select "Advanced Search" in the search box in the upper left corner of the catalog page, then enter your search criteria in the top box of the search page. If you also want to search inside the Description field, check that box just below the search criteria window. Note that the "Quick Find" box only searches the visible (displayed) portion of the document title. IMPORTANT NOTE: Use only "key" words; do not enter connectors (articles, conjunctions, prepositions) like "of," "a," "the," "and," etc. For example, if you were searching for the book Chemistry and Technology of Explosives, you would enter Chemistry Technology Explosives in the search box.

b. BROWSE. If you are interested in a certain kind of information but don't have a particular item in mind, then the list of categories in the right column is your starting point. Choose the top-level category that is closest or most relevant to your field of interest. If there are subcategories under that one, select the most relevant one and browse the resulting listings. Continue until you find what you want or exhaust that category.

Browsing categories requires persistence, because the organization of categories and subcategories, and the assignment of items to those categories, though it appears logical to us, may not agree with the way you organize your own files. Feel free to contact us by email for guidance if things continue not to make sense.

To learn more about what you have found: Whether you are searching or browsing, the result will be a list of items found, each entry a single line containing a fragment of the title, the price and a "Buy Now!" button. To learn more about an item, click on its title; this will open a window with a detailed description. From that window, you can either add the item to your shopping cart or press "Continue" to return to where you were before.

2. Loading your Shopping Cart

Once you have found an item that you want to order, click the "Buy Now" button in the far right column of the item listing. In most cases, this will open a box with a detailed description of the item and various buttons below. Press "Add to Cart" to put the item in your shopping cart. Then press "Continue" to find more items or "Check Out" to complete your order.

3. Establishing an Account

At this point, if you haven't bought from us before and haven't yet created a customer account, you will need to do so. Just fill out the necessary fields, taking special care with your email address, which we need to keep you informed of the status of your order, and the various postal address fields so we can ship your order to you.

4. Checkout

The checkout steps are fairly straightforward. At present only one shipping method is available on-line (Air Mail/Air Parcel, registered), so if you need special shipping arrangements, email us. Choose your payment method, enter the required information, and voilą!

5. What if it is Not in the Catalog?

Email us! We have much material not yet entered in the catalog, and know where to find more. Your inquiry will tell us to put a higher priority on the subjects that you are interested in.

6. You have something that you think we might want...

Email us! We trade two-for-one - two photocopy sheets from our catalog for one that you contribute. Don't just send us things, though; check first to make sure that we need it.

7. Paying with a Deposit

This section is only for customers who have only slow and/or expensive means of payment available to them. For example, if you have no credit or debit card, your options are limited to:

• a personal cheque or postal money order, which has to be sent by post, imposing a delay,
• an International Money Order, which from some countries can take as much as 6 months to process,
• a telegraphic (bank-to-bank) money transfer, which is quick but can cost $20-30 per transaction,
• a private money transfer service such as Western Union, which is less expensive but still too high for a small purchase.

But even payment methods that are prohibitive for funding a single transaction can be useful if they are employed in advance of need, and used to fund more than one purchase. This is the principle behind the "deposit accounts" which were once offered by such major technical-document sources as the [US] National Technical Information Service. NTIS doesn't offer deposit accounts any more, but we feel there is still a need for this kind of service, particularly for a business like ours which claims to serve the technical documentation needs of a worldwide clientele.

Archivale has adapted the "gift voucher" system of our e-commerce software for this purpose. To use the system:

1. Select the category DEPOSIT/REPLENISHMENT in the right column of the catalog page.
2. Select the voucher denomination and quantity that meet your needs. For example, if you want to deposit $30, you would select the $10 deposit voucher, add it to your shopping cart and enter quantity 3.
3. Check out as usual, selecting "check/money order" as the method of payment. If you are using some other form of payment, email us to make special arrangements. For instance, if using a telegraphic transfer you would need to obtain transfer instructions from us by email.

After we receive your payment, you will receive an email message acknowledging your purchase and inviting you to visit our Web site to "redeem" the voucher, which simply means getting it credited to your account.

Afterward, when you make a purchase, the checkout system will offer you the option of using your credit to pay for the order.