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Illinois Digital Archives Help

Browsing Collections

Use the browse option for viewing items in a collection without specifying search criteria.


Figure 1: Browsing Collections

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Searching the Illinois Digital Archives

You have several options for searching within a single collection or across multiple collections: search across all fields, by selected fields, by proximity or by date. The default selection is to search across all fields.

Search Across All Fields

When you select Search Across All Fields, a screen similar to the one below appears.


Figure 2: Search across all fields

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Selecting Collections

When you select Search Selected Fields, a screen similar to the one below appears.


Figure 3: Search selected fields
 

When you select Search by Proximity, a screen similar to the one below appears:


Figure 4: Search by proximity

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Search by Date

Whether you have access to the date search depends on the content of the collection, so this option may not be available. Only the collections that are searchable by date can be selected and searched in this mode. When you select Search by Date, a screen similar to the one below appears.
 


Figure 5: Search by date
 

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Viewing Results

Results may be viewed in a variety of ways and can be changed using Preferences.
To view an item within the search results, click on a thumbnail image or the hyperlinked text describing the item.
 


Figure 6: Viewing results
 

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Viewing Items

JPEG, JPEG2000 and GIF files open in a window similar to the one shown below.
Portable Document Format (PDF) files open in a window that uses Adobe Reader®, if inline viewing has been enabled by the creators of the collection.

 


Figure 7: Viewing items

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Using the Image Toolbar

Zoom, pan, rotate, hide/show thumbnail, and clip options may be available when viewing images in some collections.


Toolbar

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Viewing Compound Objects

Documents or multi-sided objects are displayed in viewers that provide additional navigation appropriate to the item being viewed. Objects in Portable Document Format (PDF) are displayed in a viewer that uses Adobe Reader.


Figure 8: Viewing compound objects

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To view an article in a separate window:

1. Click on the Hide/Show Article icon on the image toolbar to activate article highlighting.
2. Mouse over the article you wish to view and click on the article you have highlighted.

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Preferences

Use the drop-down lists to change the appearance of the search results and My Favorites pages. Changing settings in the My Favorites section also affect Slideshow and Compare.


Figure 9: Setting Preferences

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My Favorites

Using My Favorites requires cookies. If your Web browser settings do not allow cookies to be saved on your computer, you will not be able to use My Favorites without changing your Web browser's settings.

Any media file within the Illinois Digital Archives can be added to your Favorites for viewing, e-mailing, saving to your local machine, or posting to Web sites. When you view collections in the Illinois Digital Archives, click My Favorites to review or edit your personal favorites.

To Add Items to My Favorites

When you open an item to view it, the link to add items to My Favorites appears in the upper and lower corners of the page. When you open a compound object to view it, links to add either the entire compound object or the page that you are viewing are in the upper middle of the page.

  1. Click Add to Favorites. The item and the item description are added to My Favorites. When viewing compound objects, add single pages or add the entire compound object to My Favorites.

  2. Click Back to Results to return to browsing or searching.

To Add Multiple Items to My Favorites

  1. From the browse or search results view, place a check in the check boxes to the left of the desired items, or click Select All.

  2. Click Add to Favorites.

    Only the items on the current Web page may be added to My Favorites. For example, you cannot select items on one results page and move to another page to select more items before adding to My Favorites.

Using and Managing My Favorites

Once you have added items to My Favorites, you can view images as slideshows, compare images, delete selected items, or change the order of items within your Favorites page. These functions are located on the left side of the My Favorites page. Using these options does not affect the collection itself.

Up to 100 items may be saved to your Favorites. For each item that has been added to My Favorites, a thumbnail image is displayed. Click the thumbnail image to access the corresponding item.

To View as Slideshow:

The slideshow section is located at the top of the left side of the My Favorites page.

  1. From the left toolbar of the My Favorites page, click Slideshow. The slideshow viewer opens.

  2. Click Next or Previous to move through the images in your slideshow.

  3. To view the item metadata, click Metadata.

  4. To compare two images side by side, click Compare.

  5. To jump to a specific item, use the drop-down list.

  6. Close the slideshow viewer to return to My Favorites.

Note: Only images (such as GIF, JPEG) can be viewed in the slideshow. Compound objects, audio, video, and some types of full resolution files cannot be viewed in the slideshow.

To Compare Images:

The compare view can be accessed from My Favorites or the slideshow view.

  1. Use the drop-down lists in the Compare section to specify items you want to compare.

  2. Click Compare. The comparison window opens.

To compare other items once the comparison window is open, use the drop-down lists at the top of the comparison window to select the corresponding item number. You can also use the previous and next links within the comparison window to select new items to compare.

Note: Only images (such as GIF, JPEG) can be viewed in the compare mode. Compound objects, audio, video, and some types of full resolution files cannot be viewed in the comparison view. If an item cannot be viewed in the compare mode, item numbers are grayed-out.

To Remove Images from My Favorites:

  1. From the Remove drop-down list, select the number of the image you wish to remove. To remove multiple items, use your mouse to select items from the drop-down list while pressing the Ctrl key until all desired items have been selected. To remove all items from My Favorites select All from the bottom of the drop-down list.

  2. Click Remove. A confirmation message appears.

  3. Click OK. This action removes the image from My Favorites but does not remove any images from collections.

To Move Images:

  1. From the first drop-down list, select the number that corresponds to the image you wish to move.

  2. In the second drop-down list, select the number of the new position where you want to move the image.

  3. Click Move.

Publishing and Saving My Favorites

My Favorites can be saved or published for course lectures, posting to Web sites, or e-mailing. As long as the CONTENTdm server is accessible to the recipient, the items contained on a published page may be viewed by simply clicking on the thumbnails.

To Save as Web Page:

To Replace Existing Favorites:

To edit a Favorites Web page you have published or to resave a published page as your Favorites you must replace your existing My Favorites with the published page. To do this:

  1. Open the published Web page.

  2. Click the Make Favorites button located at the top of the published page. Any existing items saved in My Favorites will be overwritten and replaced with the current page.

Clicking Make Favorites stores all of the items shown on the page in the Illinois Digital Archives Favorites for the creator or the recipient (provided the Illinois Digital Archives Server is accessible to the recipient). Items can be compared, moved, or removed using the tools on the Illinois Digital Archives My Favorites page.

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Digital Imaging Program
Illinois State Library
300 South Second Street
Springfield, IL 62701
1-800-665-5576
islimg@ilsos.net

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