UIUC Digital Gateway to Cultural Heritage Resources

Help

Searching

Viewing Results

Saving and Downloading results (Bookbag)

Background

Contact information for more help


Searching

Boolean Searching

Multiple terms are automatically connected by an 'and' operator unless they are surrounded by " " in which case the exact phrase is searched. Other boolean searches can only be conducted in the Advanced Search area.

Searching Specific Types of Material

Individual or multiple types of material (images, text, or museum and archival objects) can be searched through the Advanced Search area. Choose the type(s) you would like to search from the list.

Wildcard/Truncated Searches

This system searches for exactly what you type. To search variations and the plural of a word, include an asterisk * at the end of the word. For example, war*, will look for wars, warrior, warm and so forth. The simple term war will look only for the word war.

Example: cat* will bring back cats, cattle, category, etc.
  cat will bring back only cat

Exact Phrase Searching

To search for an exact phrase place quotation marks around the phrase.

Example: "little women"
  "john wilkes booth"

Viewing Results

Short and long displays

On the results screen and within the bookbag you have the option of viewing a short or long display of records. The default is a short view. The short view is the title, author/artist, subject, identifier (URL) and the collection. The long display is the full bibliographic record and contains whatever information is available in the database (such as descriptions, rights information, etc.).

Sorting

Results are sorted by the type of material which they describe.. Unfortunately we do not have the capability at this point to provide other sorting.

Search history

To view your search history, click on 'search history' in the blue navigation bar. This will give you a list of your searches, the collections searched, and the number of results. To erase your search history, click on the "clear history" button at the top of the screen.


Saving and Downloading results

You may save records and download them as an html file.

To save records: Click on the "add to bookbag" link following the record.  Your bookbag will stay with you for a period of time, usually
at least 2 hours.  You can do different searches and continue to add to the bookbag. The bookbag can hold up to 500 records. You may view your bookbag at any time by clicking on the "bookbag" link in the navigation bar at the top of the main window.

Erase the records in your bookbag at anytime by viewing the bookbag and then clicking on the "clear bookbag" button.

To download your saved records: Click on the "download records" button. The records will be downloaded to your browser as plain text.  If you browser has a helper application configured for plain text the record will appear in the helper application otherwise it will appear in the main window of your browser.

Records will be downloaded in the long display format.


Background

All records in the UIUC Cultural Heritage Repository are in the Dublin Core metadata format. This simple metadata format allows for the sharing of records from multiple institutions. For those interested we have included a description of each field, the labels we use for those fields, and how each field is indexed -- that is, where you should search (title, author, subject, entire record, etc.) to find information within that specific field. Please note that Subject, Description, and Contributor will display differently in the short display than in the full display.

UIUC Cultural Heritage Repository Element Name
Dublin Core Element Name
Description (from Dublin Core Definitions and Project Variations)
How Indexed?
Title Title The name by which a resource is known.
  • Title
  • Entire Record
Author/Artist Creator The entity responsible for the creation of the resource.
  • Author/Artist
  • Entire Record
Contributor (Author/Artist if in short display) Contributor The entity response for making contributions to the resource. May also indicate the contributor to an institution (museum or archives donor).
  • Author/Artist
  • Entire Record
Subject (Subject/Description if in short display) Subject Keywords which express the topic of the resource. May also be in phrases.
  • Subject/Description
  • Entire Record
Description (Subject/Description if in short display) Description May include an abstract, keywords, or a free text account of the resource.
  • Subject Description
  • Entire Record
Publisher Publisher The entity responsible for making the resource available. May be both a traditional publisher or the institution that is making the metadata available.
  • Publisher
  • Entire Record
Date Date A date associated with the life cycle of the resource. This may vary from the specific date of publication or creation of the resource to a broad range (like 20th century).
  • Entire Record
Coverage (Subject/Description if in short display) Coverage The extent or scope of the content of the resource. Typically includes spatial data, temporal data, or cultural data. These values may be very specific or very general. Examples include: Champaign County, 1830-1850, and Baroque
  • Entire Record
Type of Material Type The nature or genre of the content of the resource. This would include image, photograph, correspondence, etc. This field has been normalized by the UIUC project; we have added terms to bring like items together.
  • Type
  • Entire Record
Format/Quantity of Material Format The physical or digital manifestation of the resource. Also, the quantity of material for archival collections. This includes information about the size of a resource, the MIME type (jpeg, gif) of a resource, and the number of items within a resource.
  • Format
  • Entire Record
Online Access/Unique ID Identifier An unambiguous reference to a resource within a specific context. Includes unique identifiers within institutions and URLs for online access to resources.
  • Entire Record
Language Language The language of the intellectual content of the resource.
  • Language
  • Entire Record
Rights Rights Information about the rights held in and over the resource. Includes copyright information and access information.
  • Entire Record
Source Source A reference to a resource from which the present resource is derived. May be free text or a URL pointing to the source.
  • Entire Record
Relation Relation A reference to a related resource. May be free text or a URL pointing to the related resource.
  • Entire Record



Contact Information

For more help and information about the repository contact Sarah Shreeves at sshreeve@uiuc.edu .


Last updated 24-Jun-2003