New features in the DL - Fall 2007

Improved searching
Reporting a metadata error
Re-sort search results on other cirteria
Download metadata with a single image

Using the DL

Keyword search
Advanced search
Navigating through a result set
Re-ordering a result set
Results gallery
Creating groups
  • Persistent URL
  • Local copy of a slide show
  • Local copy of a gallery page
  • Server based groups

    • Exporting images and data

    Keyword searching:
    Enter one or more keywords into the box and click “Search.” The DL will return up to seventy thumbnail images on each page and provide partial metadata for each record that matches the keyword(s) you enter into the search box. Additional information can then be obtained for each image by clicking on the Quotes cannot be used to group phrases, at this time there is no way to search for phrases in the DL.

    Improved Searching - The simple search will check your keywords against ALL of the following fields for matches: Title, Artist/Creator, Subject, Accession Number, Alternate Title, Content Type, Context, Contributor, Cataloger, Description, Job Number, Medium, Nationality-Culture-Style, Object Date, Object Type, Repository and Source. For more specific searches see the Advanced Searching section below.

    By default, the DL performs an AND search for all the words you use in your search. Above the search box is an option to change it to an OR search by selecting “Any” instead of the default which is “All of these words.”

    You may perform partial word matching - this option is is turned on by default. Partial word matching allows you to enter just the first few letters in each of the words in the Search box. The “Exact word match” search is best for searches that you know will return many records and you wish to narrow down the result set.

    Search Result Set Order - You can change the order of a result set. Below the Search button is the option to “Sort results by:” with a variety of choices. By default items are sorted by the object date. You may choose the sort option prior to performing the search, or resort the results while viewing them.

    Advanced Search:
    Advanced searching is done by clicking the “Advanced Search” link, upper right side of the main search page.

    The advanced search allows you to select the specific field and perform “and/or” searching across specific fields. The layout is setup to provide up to four search sentences or rows. For each search row you must indicate the field, condition and specify keywords for your search. If you fail to provide a keyword or field that row will be ignored.

    The fields you may choose from are: Title, Artist/Creator, Subject, Accession Number, Alternate Title, Content Type, Context, Contributor, Cataloger, Description, Job Number, Medium, Nationality-Culture-Style, Object Date, Object Type, Repository and Source.

    The search conditions you may choose from are: Contains, Does not contain, Equal to, Not equal to and Begins with.

    The keyword box will accept multiple values. By default entering in a group of words provides an AND search, where all the words entered must be found in the selected field. If you wish to perform an OR search, simply place a comma between each search word. This is separate from the AND/OR selection between each search row which allows more complex searches to be performed where four search rows is not enough.

    Results page:
    Navigating through the result set - The result set will return up to seventy items per page. If your results contain more than seventy images you can use the results navigation box to move between results pages. Use the left and right arrows to move between the pages or type a page number in the "jump to page" box and click the double arrow button to advance directly to that page.

    Re-sort search results on other cirteria - The DL now provides you the ability to resort your result set after you perform your search. To resort you search click the down arrow in the "sort results by" box and select the criteria you would like to sort on. The search results will automatically be refreshed.

    Results Gallery - Each image in your result set will return a thumbnail image, partial metadata, a link to view a hi-res image with the actual dimensions of the image and a save button to allow you to collect your images for creating groups or export.

  • To view a screen preview of the image, along with the full metadata and a link to view the SID or JP2, you can either click the thumbnail image or the title.

    Creating Groups:

    There are many options for you to create and display course or study groups in the DL. To create a group click "save" next to the item you wish to collect. Once an image is saved you can navigate through the result set or perform other searches. Your saved items are temporary will only be available until you close your browser.
    Once you have collected the images you want click the "create groups" button on the results page. You will be shown a gallery of all the images you collected. If you wish to delete an image, click the "remove" link below that image.

    Once your items are collected and you have removed any unwanted items you can click the "make page" button to
  • Obtain a persistent URL for your group
  • Create a local copy of a slide show
  • Create a local copy of a gallery page

    To create a persistent URL: On the page creation page enter your e-mail address in the box provided in Option 1 and click the submit button and a link will be e-mailed to the address you provided. You can either click the link in the e-mail message or cut and paste it into one of your pages or into the Resources section of Sakai.

    To create a local copy of a slide show, enter the name you would like to give it in the box provided under Option 2 and click the submit button. When the slide show loads in your browser click file then save as... in your browser. Navigate to the location you want to save the file and enter a name (you can use the default name of VRC Images if you wish). Make sure "Web Page, complete" is selected in the "save as type" box and click save. The entire slide show will be saved to the location you chose and can be viewed without being connected to the Internet. You will however, need to be connected to the Internet if you wish to use the Full Record function.

    To create a local copy of a gallery, click the submit button under Option 3. When the gallery page loads in your browser click file then save as... in your browser. Navigate to the location you want to save the file and enter a name (you can use the default name of VRC Images if you wish). Make sure "Web Page, complete" is selected in the "save as type" box and click save. The entire gallery will be saved to the location you chose and can be viewed without being connected to the Internet. You will however, need to be connected to the Internet if you wish to view a record with full metadata or a larger image size.

    You can also create permanent groups for course groups or exports. These groups are saved to the server and can be retrieved by clicking the "personal groups" navigation button. To create the group, click the "make dl group" button on the your group page. You will be prompted to log in, if you haven’t already done so. From the group creation page you have the option to create a new group or append the images to a group you previously created. To create a new group, enter a name. Next chose if you would like this group to be available to everyone. If you would like this group to be available to only yourself, when you are logged in, select no (you can always change this on the groups page). If you would like to append these images to a previously created group, just select the group name from the drop down list and click "save group" (only the groups you have created will be visible in the drop down list).


    Exporting images and metadata:

    Single Image Drag-and-Drop with metadata: Partial metadata is now embedded into the hi-res JPEG image. The fields that are included are Title, Creator, Object Date, Description, Accession Number and Rights Management. This data can be automatically extracted for use in Portfolio or the data can be read in any image application that utilizes XMP data such as Adobe Photoshop.

    Faculty using Portfolio: You can drag and drop individual images from the DL into your personal Portfolio catalog. This feature requires changes to the extract properties in your personal collection - see the VRC staff for more information. Once your Portfolio collection has been configured appropriately, open the hi-res image (Size 4) from the results page or full record page. Drag the hi-res image into your personal catalog, the image and embedded metadata will be displayed.

    Batch Download: You can export a large number of images out of the DL in batch. To export, you first need to create a server based group using the DL or Portfolio. Click on the group name on either of the groups pages. After the page loads click the "export group" button. The export of metadata and images is a two step process. The first step will download the full metadata set in a tab delimited text file. Right click on the word "here" under step 1 and select "save target / link as ...". Choose a location to save the file and click save. Next, click the word "here" under Step 2. This will load a page with all of the selected images. You will need to wait for the entire page to load before you can continue (this can take a while depending on the speed of your Internet connection). After the page completely loads click File then Save as... . Make sure your Save as Type is set to Web page, complete and click Save.

    Reporting a metadata error:

    If you see something incorrect or incomplete in a metadata record, click the "report an error" link on the full record page for an item. Enter your netid and your correction (please be as specific as possible) then click submit. Your entry will be reviewed by the VRC staff.