Once this site has been fully established, there will be four main routes for navigating the information held in the collections, some of which need registration for access in part or as a whole. Each of these is explained further below. These four routes are:
- Navigation by country
- Navigation by themes or concepts
- Following the SHIB outline
- Searching via specific data in the title, author or keywords fields
It is also possible to view the rolling bibliography (or do title/author searches within it), see some holdings by publisher, or see the most recently added entries in the catalogue. Links to these are provided on the Search pages.
Navigation by country — https://shib-temp.cbw-events.org.uk/states/
This approach is intended to provide short cuts to results so that users do not have to understand the indexing system. For example, users wanting to access the SHIB-coded files about allegations of Syrian use of chemical weapons do not need to remember that these are coded as D6.57 and its subfiles, but can simply open the Syria page where codes relating to that country and its activities are provided. In addition, each country page has links to relevant entries within the CBW Events coding system.
Navigation by theme — [at an early stage of development so no link yet]
There are many situations where users are interested in a particular CBW-related issue but have no wish to spend time learning how the information is structured in a dataset such as this one. This approach is intended to provide short cuts to results on a thematic basis. For example, users interested in learning about issues around chemical agents that cause temporary reductions in cognitive capacities (commonly, but sometimes confusingly, know as “incapacitants”) can click on a single page that links to SHIB-coded files on toxicity, doctrines, case studies and polices of specific countries.
Following the SHIB outline — https://shib-temp.cbw-events.org.uk/shib/
The SHIB file structure can be challenging to navigate until a user has gained some understanding about how fileheadings were selected and generated [in short, this mostly revolved around which topics researchers considered to be worth tracking]. This navigation system allows users to find files of interest via a step-by-step process moving down through the hierarchy of levels of fileheadings that eases exploring the dataset with limited prior knowledge of the coding system
Searching via specific data in the title, author or keywords fields can be carried out via the following pages:
- Catalogue search returning title and author(s) [for approved guests and above]; or
- Catalogue search within all fields [for HSP Associates only].
Last updated (RG) 10 October 2025