Questions answered

A long sentence contains many incidental words that do not appear in the text you need, and it narrows the results. Pick out two or three key ideas — the object, the action, a detail — and start with those. If you get too many results, add details one at a time.

Think about what a specialist, a salesperson or the author of an old book would call the same thing. What you call “the washer” at home is a “washing machine” in the paperwork, and “pension papers” is really a specific document name. It helps to write down two or three options in advance.

When you remember a quotation, a title or a set expression word for word. Most search tools can look for words in a fixed order; the help pages of the tool you use will tell you how. If the exact phrase finds nothing, you may have remembered it slightly differently.

See which word is pulling in the unwanted results, and exclude it or replace it with a narrower one. Narrowing by time, place or document type also helps: not “heating” but “heating in a detached house, wiring diagram”.

In one place, not five. A drawer or box with a few folders will do: home, appliances, health, work, major purchases. The key rule is that a new document goes straight into its folder, not onto a shelf “for now”.

A file name should contain whatever you will search for: what the document is, what it relates to and when it appeared. For example, “Garage lease 2024” is better than “scan_0045”. Write dates as year, month, day, and your files will line up in date order on their own.

Use the built-in file search: type part of the name or a word from the text of the document. If the name gives no clue, sort your downloads folder by date modified and try to recall roughly when the file appeared. It is also worth checking email attachments.

Remember who it was from, what it was about and roughly when it arrived. Email programs can usually search by sender and by words in the subject and body, and can show only messages with attachments. Afterwards it helps to flag important emails or move them to a separate folder.

Many transport operators, stations, shopping centres and institutions have a lost-and-found office or a desk where forgotten items are handed in. Ask the staff or check the organisation’s official website for how to contact it, and describe the item in detail: colour, distinguishing features, contents, place and time.

Call it from another phone and, if the device’s finding feature was switched on beforehand, check its last location from another device. If it looks like theft, do not try to get the phone back yourself — report it to the police: in Russia call 102 or 112, and 112 also works across the EU. Outside these areas, use your local emergency number.

Open the library’s online catalogue and search by author, title or subject. The record will show the call number and where the item is shelved. If the catalogue is confusing, ask a reference librarian: helping readers find material is part of their job.

Describe which document or information you need, what period and place it relates to, what you already know and why you need the answer. The archive itself sets the procedure, deadlines and conditions for requests — check them on its official website.