Feedback on Archives Canada Demo Site
Creighton Barrett
- I noticed the site has no data from Nova Scotia. I realize this is a sample and that data will be added when it goes live in September, but it is a little difficult to assess the site using unfamiliar records. Will you be adding any more sample data? There are no records for archival institutions from Nova Scotia either. Of course, I'm happy to wait until the live launch, but I imagine others out here will wonder where their stuff is :)
- The Digital Object browse looks great! These objects look like they are hosted on the site. Can you provide some more details about the plan for digital object hosting?
- The "Search within the entire collection" feature is a really nice addition, but it doesn't seem to be working. I search for keywords in the description I know exist and get no results. Is that feature meant to search within the finding aid or within the entire holdings of the repository?
- When you Browse by Subject, it is really nice to have the Places filter to further narrow the list of resources. But it wasn't clear to me at first that the Places are in fact a filter for the list of resources. Could "Places" be relabelled into something like "Narrow this List" or "Filter by Place Name"?
- Can a filter be added to narrow the subject browse by Institution?
- When you Browse by Place, it seems like there is a Subject filter. But it is limited to "All" and doesn't show the subject terms associated with a Place.
- The Browse by Place is really well done. I like how you can drill up and down the hierarchy. Does that require multiple place access points (e.g., Halifax (N.S) and Nova Scotia) or is the system parsing the terms?
- When you browse People and Organizations, it is difficult to find the link to materials created by the entity. I think it's just because most name records will only be associated with one fonds or collection so the list isn't long enough to catch the eye. For example: http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/25-year-club
- I REALLY like the maps on top of the Repository profiles (I saw it on York University Archives and Special Collections page, at least). How was that done and is that a feature that will be rolled out for all the themes?
- The digital object slider (http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/wallace-rankine-nesbitt-collection) is AWESOME.
- Could you shed some light on the source of the image on the homepage? It's not quite as bright and cheerful as it could be. The bokeh takes centre stage and the white text on the right is a bit hard to read.
Really impressed folks!
Cheers,
Creighton
JBushey, ICA-AtoM Product Manager
This is great feedback, thank you!
I have just arrived back from the Association of Canadian Archivists 2013 Annual Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba and will take some time tomorrow to respond in full to your questions. But for now, you are correct that the records in the ArchivesCanada 2.0 Demo Site are only a SAMPLE and do not include records from every institution.
Best,
Jessica Bushey
Jessica Bushey
I have only poked around a little bit, but I do have some comments and questions:Hi there,First, the Artefactual team and CCA deserves a big round of applause for their work on the new Archives Canada site. It is GREAT to see the demo site available. Kudos all around.
- I noticed the site has no data from Nova Scotia. I realize this is a sample and that data will be added when it goes live in September, but it is a little difficult to assess the site using unfamiliar records. Will you be adding any more sample data? There are no records for archival institutions from Nova Scotia either. Of course, I'm happy to wait until the live launch, but I imagine others out here will wonder where their stuff is :)
- The Digital Object browse looks great! These objects look like they are hosted on the site. Can you provide some more details about the plan for digital object hosting?
- The "Search within the entire collection" feature is a really nice addition, but it doesn't seem to be working. I search for keywords in the description I know exist and get no results. Is that feature meant to search within the finding aid or within the entire holdings of the repository?
- When you Browse by Subject, it is really nice to have the Places filter to further narrow the list of resources. But it wasn't clear to me at first that the Places are in fact a filter for the list of resources. Could "Places" be relabelled into something like "Narrow this List" or "Filter by Place Name"?
- Can a filter be added to narrow the subject browse by Institution?
- When you Browse by Place, it seems like there is a Subject filter. But it is limited to "All" and doesn't show the subject terms associated with a Place.
- The Browse by Place is really well done. I like how you can drill up and down the hierarchy. Does that require multiple place access points (e.g., Halifax (N.S) and Nova Scotia) or is the system parsing the terms?
- When you browse People and Organizations, it is difficult to find the link to materials created by the entity. I think it's just because most name records will only be associated with one fonds or collection so the list isn't long enough to catch the eye. For example: http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/25-year-club
- I REALLY like the maps on top of the Repository profiles (I saw it on York University Archives and Special Collections page, at least). How was that done and is that a feature that will be rolled out for all the themes?
- The digital object slider (http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/wallace-rankine-nesbitt-collection) is AWESOME.
- Could you shed some light on the source of the image on the homepage? It's not quite as bright and cheerful as it could be. The bokeh takes centre stage and the white text on the right is a bit hard to read.
Really impressed folks!
Cheers,
Creighton
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Tim Hutchinson
Congratulations on this development, and thanks for giving us the chance to send feedback. Here's some from me:
- Virtual exhibits:
- I'm glad to see that the virtual exhibits database is being incorporated, but is the full feature coming later? I see a feature exhibit, but couldn't figure out how to search/browse the whole database
- Using IE, when you mouse over the image, it turns black
- browsing institutions:
- I found this interface a bit clunky and I'm not sure how much the graphics add. Especially when we go live with imports from provincial networks, I think there will continue to be many institutions with no graphic. I would find columns indicating, say, province and number of descriptions more useful
- is it possible to add a facet for whether or not there are holdings?
- search and browse options:
- I was going to say that I missed the ability to choose different browse options from any screen, but then I found the arrow on the edge of the search box. Handy once you know it's there, but I wonder if it's a bit subtle for casual users. Perhaps a text link or mouseover?
- I really like the faceted searching. But I wonder if a header would be helpful for those not used to this interface, E.g. "Narrow your search". Primo uses "Refine my results." (Creighton mentioned in this in the context of subject browse, but I think it would be useful whenever the facets are available)
- what does the relevancy sort mean when no search terms have been entered (i.e. when you start with a browse)? Can this option be suppressed in that case?
- I couldn't figure out how to search within the archival institutions (e.g. search for a name of an institution) - as opposed to narrowing the results of a description search by institution. Similarly for authority records.
- following up on your note about "search within entire collection", you might consider refining this label, e.g. to refer to the institution's holdings. There is potential ambiguity around the term "collection" especially when a single fonds/collection is being displayed.
- in the brief view (search results or browse descriptions), I would suggesting adding institution name.
- the filter options seem to return the top 10 results in each category, which wasn't immediately obvious - is that correct? It would be ideal to be able to expand the lists - or at least be told that it's not a complete list. Here is an example of how we implemented this for a few projects; the full list opens in the main window.
http://scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/solr?mode=results&query=Repository%3A%22University%20of%20Saskatchewan%20Archives%22
(e.g. look under subject). I'm not sure if this is the built-in solr implementation, or specific to this site.
- Advanced search:
- I like the interface, but it would be great to have the best of both worlds and also have access to the facets.
- Copyright status is interesting, but also potentially problematic since it's not usually that simple for anything but the item level. How is the search being applied if there are multiple levels with different values? Also, searching for "unknown" status should probably return results if the value is not populated. I think it's fair to say that most legacy RAD descriptions will include this information in a note.
- The label "narrow down your search results" seems confusing, since it appears even before a search has been done.
- In FF and Chrome, the select list for institutions expands nicely to fit the institution names, but this doesn't seem to be working in IE
- French version:
- I noticed that a few elements aren't translated on the advanced search. I'm guessing this is still in progress, but if not I can check this in more detail.
- Authority records
- Right now it looks like there was a lot of activity on December 31st, 1969. But even if it was accurate, what's the purpose of including a date stamp here?
- Mobile:
- It's great to have a mobile friendly site.
- My main comment is that on a phone, the size of the institution graphic (when viewing a description) is a little overwhelming
- And similarly, my comment above about the graphics for the institutional browse goes double for the mobile version.
I was also glad to notice slightly friendlier URLs, e.g. omitting ;rad
Finally, this is really about what static content is included rather than AtoM functionality, but I think it's important to maintain information about the provincial networks that will be populating Archives Canada, currently available at http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/networks.html
These detailed comments should not detract from my overall reaction of being very impressed!
Tim
JBushey, ICA-AtoM Product Manager
The following response to your questions has been provided by ICA-AtoM Product Manger, Dan Gillean (he is attending a conference and is experiencing difficulties gaining consistent access to the User Forum):
Question #3 - The “search the entire collection” was a feature that our lead AtoM developer kindly included at the last minute based on my repeated requests for such a functionality, despite the fact that its development has not been supported. Having used AtoM in archival work settings many times, I am very aware of the strong use case for being able to restrict searches to a specific collection, and it is something I hope to see included in the final version of 2.0. At the moment, the feature included is in fact a half step toward this – the treeview search is limited to title and identifier, and provides users with a means of navigating more quickly through the specific collection to the desired description when such information is known. You can use wildcards for better results, for example:
* Multiple character wildcard. Example: galax* will find galaxy and galaxies, but not galactic.
~ Fuzzy search. Will return results with words similar to the term. Example: fjord~ will find fjord, fjords, ford, form, fonds, etc.
I haven’t tested to see if ALL Boolean operators are functional in the treeview search, but I assume so. Find more details here: https://www.ica-atom.org/doc/Advanced_search
My hope, as I said, is that this will be expanded in AtoM 2.0 to provide support for searching all fields, and that a search/browse page of results limited to a single institution will be provided. Jésus, our lead AtoM developer, tells me that given 2.0’s current architecture, this should not be too difficult to implement, but I must reiterate that this is NOT a sponsored feature – consequently its inclusion in the AtoM 2.0 release this fall will depend entirely on the timeline of our current development, and the nature of any challenges we encounter along the way. This feature is not guaranteed. I will continue to be pushing for support for this feature, as I believe it is useful for a multi-institutional portal. We have an issue ticket for the planned feature here, if you’re interested: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5200. Hopefully my response clarifies the current functionality of this feature and its plans for further development.
Question #7 - My understanding is that the Places we have included in the ArchivesCanada demo are drawn from data that you can currently find in the Archeion Portal: http://www.archeion.ca/;taxonomy/browse/42. Archeion has put a wonderful amount of energy into organizing the places taxonomy hierarchically, so that Halifax (NS) is nested under the term Nova Scotia, for example – AtoM’s new interface has merely added a context menu similar to the archival description treeview to better display this information. Thus, the functionality and nesting of the Places context menu will be entirely dependent on the data and how it is organized.
Question #9- The maps are achieved by including latitude and longitude coordinates in the ISDIAH record’s contact profile. I know that for the Archeion data (which we received first, and were therefore able to work with the most), our AtoM developer, Jésus managed to run a script that discovered and pulled this information from Google Analytics (if the rest of the contact information was complete but lats and longs weren’t present). This means that there is a method of retrieving this information via script, but you’d have to speak to a developer about this. With the AtoM 2.0 release I don’t believe that AtoM will be automatically doing this – I am pretty sure that institutions will have to look up their own lats and longs and include this information in the contact area of the ISDIAH record if they want a map to automatically display.
Thanks again for your feedback, Creighton – we look forward to hearing more from you and the rest of the community as we move forward with 2.0 and beyond.
Regards,
Dan Gillean
JBushey, ICA-AtoM Product Manager
Thank you for your constructive feedback. I am preparing a response and will post to the forum when it is completed.
In the meantime, please review Dan's response to Creighton's feedback, as it provides additional information which touches upon some of your comments.
Regards,
Jessica Bushey
Dan Gillean
Thanks for the useful feedback on the demo site. I've tried to respond to some of the points you've raised below:
- Virtual exhibits:
- I'm glad to see that the virtual exhibits database is being incorporated, but is the full feature coming later? I see a feature exhibit, but couldn't figure out how to search/browse the whole database
Unfortunately, a full virtual exhibits database or functional module has not currently been included in 2.0 – Archives Canada has requested that a single showcase exhibit be available on their landing page, and we have arranged this as part of their customizations for the launch. We can gladly post a snippet of the code used for this particular customization once 2.0 is released (perhaps on the development wiki), but implementing it will be the responsibility of end users until support for an expanded Virtual Exhibits module has been included in a future AtoM release. We would very much like to see this developed further – if SAIN or anyone else in our community is interested in supporting the development of such a module, please contact Artefactual off-list and we would be happy to discuss the ideal functionality of such a module further, and provide a quote for development.
- Using IE, when you mouse over the image, it turns black
Thanks for the tip – what version of IE were you using? The behavior is as expected in IE10. We will be doing further cross-browser testing before the launch, but for the soft-launch of the demo, we haven’t been able to test on all versions of all browsers. I will make a note and file an issue; please let me know which IE version you were using so I can reproduce.
- browsing institutions:
- I found this interface a bit clunky and I'm not sure how much the graphics add. Especially when we go live with imports from provincial networks, I think there will continue to be many institutions with no graphic. I would find columns indicating, say, province and number of descriptions more useful
- is it possible to add a facet for whether or not there are holdings?
Our hope is to encourage institutions to engage more with
the platform – the final launch will also include the ability for individual
institutions to choose the background color of their ISDIAH institutional
authority record – and any archival description held by that institution will
carry those theme colours around the site.
I will discuss the possibility of including a sort/view
option that does not include graphics, and instead includes name and number of
holdings, with our developers to see how much work would be involved.
A facet for excluding institutions without holdings might also be possible – though hopefully when the site goes live and all the provincial portal data has been included, this will be less relevant. As such, it’s not a priority fix right now. Please remember that this is merely a sample data set, which included a number of institutions without holdings, as they had been entered for their CAIN identifiers. Once we have received all the AC data for the final launch, we will be running merge scripts to identify duplicates without holdings and ensure they have been removed from the database if a populated record is present.
- search and browse options:
- I was going to say that I missed the ability to choose different browse options from any screen, but then I found the arrow on the edge of the search box. Handy once you know it's there, but I wonder if it's a bit subtle for casual users. Perhaps a text link or mouseover?
In the generic Dominion theme that will be included with the 2.0 release, this is currently displayed as a separate button that says “Browse,” which should make the distinction clearer. Do you feel that this would address the issue? Please keep in mind that the current header is part of the specific theme developed for Archives Canada – the generic header in 2.0 will be more condensed, and will make use of icons to manage administrative options such as the Admin settings, Add, Manage, and Import.
- I really like the faceted searching. But I wonder if a header would be helpful for those not used to this interface, E.g. "Narrow your search". Primo uses "Refine my results." (Creighton mentioned in this in the context of subject browse, but I think it would be useful whenever the facets are available)
I agree, thanks for the input. It shouldn’t be hard to include a label. I’m partial to “Narrrow your results,” as it can be reused in both search and browse showscreens – do you think this would add the needed clarity? I will discuss whether or not we can include this fix as a configurable option via the Admin > Menus settings, so users have the ability to change this via the GUI.
- what does the relevancy sort mean when no search terms have been entered (i.e. when you start with a browse)? Can this option be suppressed in that case?
Again this will depend on developer feedback. I’ll get back to you on the feasibility of including this.
- I couldn't figure out how to search within the archival institutions (e.g. search for a name of an institution) - as opposed to narrowing the results of a description search by institution. Similarly for authority records.
At the moment all searches are managed via the federated search bar – as you start typing, a faceted list of options, including archival institutions, and authority records, will display, with the option to view all relevant results displayed for each facet where there are multiple related records – for example, type “university” in the search bar, and click “all matching institutions” in the faceted search dropdown that appears. Unfortunately, there is a known issue with the search at the moment – when a space is entered, the facets disappear. Hitting enter always brings a showscreen of results for archival descriptions, and if the facet is selected when a word is half-typed (entering for example “uni” and then selecting “all matching institutions”), the literal string is searched, rarely returning any results.
We are aware we will need to improve this functionality before the final release. I would like to consider making search bar queries fuzzy searches by default to better support the use of the facets, for starters – I’ve filed an issue for discussion on the usability of this here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5276
Additionally, improvements may involve including dedicated search bars, as we are currently managing authority record and institution searching in AtoM 1.x – but we are open to other suggestions to increase usability. What would you like to see? I’ve filed an issue here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5277
- following up on your note about "search within entire collection", you might consider refining this label, e.g. to refer to the institution's holdings. There is potential ambiguity around the term "collection" especially when a single fonds/collection is being displayed.
Thanks – the current term is provisional, as this was a last
minute feature included for feedback by our developers. See my previous
response, posted via Jessica Bushey while I was away, for more on the current
and future functionality of this feature. Refining the language used will also
help us clarify the functionality. What do you think it should say, if we are
restricting to the current fonds/collection, that will be clear to all
end-users? Fonds might be a preferred archival term but many end users are not familiar with it; "holdings" to me suggests that it is searching all holdings of the institution and not only the current fonds/collection. Feedback welcome!
- in the brief view (search results or browse descriptions), I would suggesting adding institution name.
This will be included in the final release – please see https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5171 for the current proposal of the search/browse results details – I have included a mockup there of my suggestion for results, and would welcome further discussion on the issue ticket.
- the filter options seem to return the top 10 results in each category, which wasn't immediately obvious - is that correct? It would be ideal to be able to expand the lists - or at least be told that it's not a complete list. Here is an example of how we implemented this for a few projects; the full list opens in the main window.
(e.g. look under subject). I'm not sure if this is the built-in solr implementation, or specific to this site.
Thanks for the example! It’s useful to see other implementations of faceted results, and how some of these scenarios have been managed. You are correct; in the beta demo, only the top 10 results are displaying in the facets, though we would like to improve this for the full 2.0 release. I have filed an issue at the following link: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5278
- Advanced search:
- I like the interface, but it would be great to have the best of both worlds and also have access to the facets.
Good idea. Some of the facets, such as institution and level of description, are available via the advanced search filters on the left hand side. Others would be available in the search by adding criteria for place, subject, or name, for example – but this presumes a search parameter, rather than a browse filter. I will discuss the possibility of including facets here with our developers. In the meantime I’ve filed a ticket for the discussion here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5279
- Copyright status is interesting, but also potentially problematic since it's not usually that simple for anything but the item level. How is the search being applied if there are multiple levels with different values? Also, searching for "unknown" status should probably return results if the value is not populated. I think it's fair to say that most legacy RAD descriptions will include this information in a note.
Useful questions; I will discuss with our developers and respond. I agree that we should return all empty values in the “unknown” status results. An issue for this has been filed here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5280
- The label "narrow down your search results" seems confusing, since it appears even before a search has been done.
What would you suggest? Would “Narrow your search” be clearer?
- In FF and Chrome, the select list for institutions expands nicely to fit the institution names, but this doesn't seem to be working in IE
Again, which version of IE did you note this in? In IE10 I’ve encountered no issues, but we haven’t tested all versions for backwards compatibility yet.
- French version:
- I noticed that a few elements aren't translated on the advanced search. I'm guessing this is still in progress, but if not I can check this in more detail.
We’re still working to improve the interface translations
before the final launch, but there are a lot of new strings throughout the
application, so please help us catch them all and let us know where you’ve seen
terms that haven’t translated. Thanks to this comment I have re-opened our ticket on the translations, and added notes for the terms here. See the ticket here (and add anything else you find, please!): https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5129
- Authority records
- Right now it looks like there was a lot of activity on December 31st, 1969. But even if it was accurate, what's the purpose of including a date stamp here?
Hm, this is supposed to be displaying the dates of existence from the authority record. I will look into this issue further, thanks for pointing it out. I’ve filed a ticket here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5281
- Mobile:
- It's great to have a mobile friendly site.
- My main comment is that on a phone, the size of the institution graphic (when viewing a description) is a little overwhelming
- And similarly, my comment above about the graphics for the institutional browse goes double for the mobile version.
Mobile will receive a lot more usability testing and tweaks in the coming weeks. Thanks for the input.
I was also glad to notice slightly friendlier URLs, e.g. omitting ;rad
We like this too :D
Finally, this is really about what static content is included rather than AtoM functionality, but I think it's important to maintain information about the provincial networks that will be populating Archives Canada, currently available at http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/networks.html
All provincial networks included in Archives Canada will continue to be present in the final release. It will be up to Archives Canada to determine if and how they wish to maintain information about what networks are covered, but I agree that this is useful information for end users. In AtoM this could be included via the creation of a new Static Page.
These detailed comments should not detract from my overall reaction of being very impressed!
Best,
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Tim Hutchinson
Thanks for your detailed response. Some attempted answers to your questions, plus a couple more questions, below.
Tim
On 25/06/2013 1:58 PM, Dan Gillean wrote:
Good to know. In that case I would suggest tweaking or even removing the introductory wording that refers to virtual exhibits - it seems to suggest more than a single exhibit at once. I'm curious, though - how long does a particular exhibit remain featured? Not that I'm complaining about a U of S exhibit being front and centre :)
Unfortunately, a full virtual exhibits database or functional module has not currently been included in 2.0 � Archives Canada has requested that a single showcase exhibit be available on their landing page, and we have arranged this as part of their customizations for the launch. We can gladly post a snippet of the code used for this particular customization once 2.0 is released (perhaps on the development wiki), but implementing it will be the responsibility of end users until support for an expanded Virtual Exhibits module has been included in a future AtoM release.
I've seen this (and the cut-off institution names) on two machines using IE8.
���� - Using IE, when you mouse over the image, it turns black
�
Thanks for the tip � what version of IE were you using? The behavior is as expected in IE10. We will be doing further cross-browser testing before the launch, but for the soft-launch of the demo, we haven�t been able to test on all versions of all browsers. I will make a note and file an issue; please let me know which IE version you were using so I can reproduce.
�
Good to know. I'll just mention, though, that the way we are using the system in Saskatchewan is to maintain ISDIAH records for all institutions, so that AtoM serves as a directory of archives even for archives that haven't contributed descriptive records.
A facet for excluding institutions without holdings might also be possible � though hopefully when the site goes live and all the provincial portal data has been included, this will be less relevant. As such, it�s not a priority fix right now. Please remember that this is merely a sample data set, which included a number of institutions without holdings, as they had been entered for their CAIN identifiers. Once we have received all the AC data for the final launch, we will be running merge scripts to identify duplicates without holdings and ensure they have been removed from the database if a populated record is present.
But in terms of the complete AC data - this prompts me to ask, will you be getting fresh data from the provincial networks, or are you just using the final version of Archives Canada? In the case of SAIN (and I suspect other networks using ICA-AtoM) our AC data is over two years out of date since we haven't had a way to export to MARC.
�
- search and browse options:
Yes, I think that would help.� ��- I was going to say that I missed the ability to choose different browse options from any screen, but then I found the arrow on the edge of the search box. Handy once you know it's there, but I wonder if it's a bit subtle for casual users. Perhaps a text link or mouseover?
�
In the generic Dominion theme that will be included with the 2.0 release, this is currently displayed as a separate button that says �Browse,� which should make the distinction clearer. Do you feel that this would address the issue?
Right, now that you mention it I remember seeing the faceting. That seems like a more effective direction to pursue.�
��� - I couldn't figure out how to search within the archival institutions (e.g. search for a name of an institution) - as opposed to narrowing the results of a description search by institution. Similarly for authority records.
�
At the moment all searches are managed via the federated search bar � as you start typing, a faceted list of options, including archival institutions, and authority records, will display, with the option to view all relevant results displayed for each facet where there are multiple related records � for example, type �university� in the search bar, and click �all matching institutions� in the faceted search dropdown that appears. Unfortunately, there is a known issue with the search at the moment � when a space is entered, the facets disappear. Hitting enter always brings a showscreen of results for archival descriptions, and if the facet is selected when a word is half-typed (entering for example �uni� and then selecting �all matching institutions�), the literal string is searched, rarely returning any results.
Actually, I think I was getting mixed up between the search all holdings and search whole collection options. I like the way the limit to institution search is set up, and in this context "collection" makes sense to me.�
���� - following up on your note about "search within entire collection", you might consider refining this label, e.g. to refer to the institution's holdings. There is potential ambiguity around the term "collection" especially when a single fonds/collection is being displayed.
�
Thanks � the current term is provisional, as this was a last minute feature included for feedback by our developers. See my previous response, posted via Jessica Bushey while I was away, for more on the current and future functionality of this feature. Refining the language used will also help us clarify the functionality. What do you think it should say, if we are restricting to the current fonds/collection, that will be clear to all end-users? Fonds might be a preferred archival term but many end users are not familiar with it; "holdings" to me suggests that it is searching all holdings of the institution and not only the current fonds/collection. Feedback welcome!
Actually, I'm not sure any label is required. Is the intent that you would narrow down your search results by adding new criteria?
�
- Advanced search:
�
�
��� - The label "narrow down your search results" seems confusing, since it appears even before a search has been done.
�
What would you suggest? Would �Narrow your search� be clearer?
Tim Hutchinson
Further to the translation issue... I'm having trouble figuring out where this fits into the issue tracker, so instead of creating a new ticket I thought I'd follow up here in case this isn't a known issue:
In the French interface, some of the facets show up as part of the query path rather than the value of the field, e.g.:
/search?creators=79474&query=fonds...
I suspect this relates to the culture fallback, i.e. if there isn't a French equivalent of the term in question, it doesn't appear correctly.
E.g. search for "fonds" and then look at the facets for producteur and lieu.
Tim
On 25/06/2013 1:58 PM, Dan Gillean wrote:
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the useful feedback on the demo site. I've tried to respond to some of the points you've raised below:
�- Virtual exhibits:
��� - I'm glad to see that the virtual exhibits database is being incorporated, but is the full feature coming later? I see a feature exhibit, but couldn't figure out how to search/browse the whole database
�
Unfortunately, a full virtual exhibits database or functional module has not currently been included in 2.0 � Archives Canada has requested that a single showcase exhibit be available on their landing page, and we have arranged this as part of their customizations for the launch. We can gladly post a snippet of the code used for this particular customization once 2.0 is released (perhaps on the development wiki), but implementing it will be the responsibility of end users until support for an expanded Virtual Exhibits module has been included in a future AtoM release. We would very much like to see this developed further � if SAIN or anyone else in our community is interested in supporting the development of such a module, please contact Artefactual off-list and we would be happy to discuss the ideal functionality of such a module further, and provide a quote for development.
�
��� - Using IE, when you mouse over the image, it turns black
�
Thanks for the tip � what version of IE were you using? The behavior is as expected in IE10. We will be doing further cross-browser testing before the launch, but for the soft-launch of the demo, we haven�t been able to test on all versions of all browsers. I will make a note and file an issue; please let me know which IE version you were using so I can reproduce.
�
- browsing institutions:
��� - I found this interface a bit clunky and I'm not sure how much the graphics add. Especially when we go live with imports from provincial networks, I think there will continue to be many institutions with no graphic. I would find columns indicating, say, province and number of descriptions more useful
��� - is it possible to add a facet for whether or not there are holdings?
�
Our hope is to encourage institutions to engage more with the platform � the final launch will also include the ability for individual institutions to choose the background color of their ISDIAH institutional authority record � and any archival description held by that institution will carry those theme colours around the site.
I will discuss the possibility of including a sort/view option that does not include graphics, and instead includes name and number of holdings, with our developers to see how much work would be involved.
A facet for excluding institutions without holdings might also be possible � though hopefully when the site goes live and all the provincial portal data has been included, this will be less relevant. As such, it�s not a priority fix right now. Please remember that this is merely a sample data set, which included a number of institutions without holdings, as they had been entered for their CAIN identifiers. Once we have received all the AC data for the final launch, we will be running merge scripts to identify duplicates without holdings and ensure they have been removed from the database if a populated record is present.
�
- search and browse options:
� ��- I was going to say that I missed the ability to choose different browse options from any screen, but then I found the arrow on the edge of the search box. Handy once you know it's there, but I wonder if it's a bit subtle for casual users. Perhaps a text link or mouseover?
�
In the generic Dominion theme that will be included with the 2.0 release, this is currently displayed as a separate button that says �Browse,� which should make the distinction clearer. Do you feel that this would address the issue? Please keep in mind that the current header is part of the specific theme developed for Archives Canada � the generic header in 2.0 will be more condensed, and will make use of icons to manage administrative options such as the Admin settings, Add, Manage, and Import.
�
��� - I really like the faceted searching. But I wonder if a header would be helpful for those not used to this interface, E.g. "Narrow your search". Primo uses "Refine my results." (Creighton mentioned in this in the context of subject browse, but I think it would be useful whenever the facets are available)
�
I agree, thanks for the input. It shouldn�t be hard to include a label. I�m partial to �Narrrow your results,� as it can be reused in both search and browse showscreens � do you think this would add the needed clarity? I will discuss whether or not we can include this fix as a configurable option via the Admin > Menus settings, so users have the ability to change this via the GUI.
�
��� - what does the relevancy sort mean when no search terms have been entered (i.e. when you start with a browse)? Can this option be suppressed in that case?
�
Again this will depend on developer feedback. I�ll get back to you on the feasibility of including this.
�
��� - I couldn't figure out how to search within the archival institutions (e.g. search for a name of an institution) - as opposed to narrowing the results of a description search by institution. Similarly for authority records.
�
At the moment all searches are managed via the federated search bar � as you start typing, a faceted list of options, including archival institutions, and authority records, will display, with the option to view all relevant results displayed for each facet where there are multiple related records � for example, type �university� in the search bar, and click �all matching institutions� in the faceted search dropdown that appears. Unfortunately, there is a known issue with the search at the moment � when a space is entered, the facets disappear. Hitting enter always brings a showscreen of results for archival descriptions, and if the facet is selected when a word is half-typed (entering for example �uni� and then selecting �all matching institutions�), the literal string is searched, rarely returning any results.
�
We are aware we will need to improve this functionality before the final release. I would like to consider making search bar queries fuzzy searches by default to better support the use of the facets, for starters � I�ve filed an issue for discussion on the usability of this here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5276
�
Additionally, improvements may involve including dedicated search bars, as we are currently managing authority record and institution searching in AtoM 1.x � �but we are open to other suggestions to increase usability. What would you like to see? I�ve filed an issue here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5277
�
�
��� - following up on your note about "search within entire collection", you might consider refining this label, e.g. to refer to the institution's holdings. There is potential ambiguity around the term "collection" especially when a single fonds/collection is being displayed.
�
Thanks � the current term is provisional, as this was a last minute feature included for feedback by our developers. See my previous response, posted via Jessica Bushey while I was away, for more on the current and future functionality of this feature. Refining the language used will also help us clarify the functionality. What do you think it should say, if we are restricting to the current fonds/collection, that will be clear to all end-users? Fonds might be a preferred archival term but many end users are not familiar with it; "holdings" to me suggests that it is searching all holdings of the institution and not only the current fonds/collection. Feedback welcome!
�
��� - in the brief view (search results or browse descriptions), I would suggesting adding institution name.
This will be included in the final release � please see https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5171 for the current proposal of the search/browse results details � I have included a mockup there of my suggestion for results, and would welcome further discussion on the issue ticket.
�
�
��� - the filter options seem to return the top 10 results in each category, which wasn't immediately obvious - is that correct? It would be ideal to be able to expand the lists - or at least be told that it's not a complete list. Here is an example of how we implemented this for a few projects; the full list opens in the main window.
(e.g. look under subject). I'm not sure if this is the built-in solr implementation, or specific to this site.
�
Thanks for the example! It�s useful to see other implementations of faceted results, and how some of these scenarios have been managed. You are correct; in the beta demo, only the top 10 results are displaying in the facets, though we would like to improve this for the full 2.0 release. �I have filed an issue at the following link: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5278
�
- Advanced search:
��� - I like the interface, but it would be great to have the best of both worlds and also have access to the facets.
�
Good idea. Some of the facets, such as institution and level of description, are available via the advanced search filters on the left hand side. Others would be available in the search by adding criteria for place, subject, or name, for example � but this presumes a search parameter, rather than a browse filter. I will discuss the possibility of including facets here with our developers. In the meantime I�ve filed a ticket for the discussion here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5279
�
��� - Copyright status is interesting, but also potentially problematic since it's not usually that simple for anything but the item level. How is the search being applied if there are multiple levels with different values? Also, searching for "unknown" status should probably return results if the value is not populated. I think it's fair to say that most legacy RAD descriptions will include this information in a note.
�
Useful questions; I will discuss with our developers and respond. I agree that we should return all empty values in the �unknown� status results. An issue for this has been filed here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5280
�
��� - The label "narrow down your search results" seems confusing, since it appears even before a search has been done.
�
What would you suggest? Would �Narrow your search� be clearer?
�
��� - In FF and Chrome, the select list for institutions expands nicely to fit the institution names, but this doesn't seem to be working in IE
�
Again, which version of IE did you note this in? In IE10 I�ve encountered no issues, but we haven�t tested all versions for backwards compatibility yet.
�
- French version:
��� - I noticed that a few elements aren't translated on the advanced search. I'm guessing this is still in progress, but if not I can check this in more detail.
�
We�re still working to improve the interface translations before the final launch, but there are a lot of new strings throughout the application, so please help us catch them all and let us know where you�ve seen terms that haven�t translated. Thanks to this comment I have re-opened our ticket on the translations, and added notes for the terms here. See the ticket here (and add anything else you find, please!): https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5129
- Authority records
��� - Right now it looks like there was a lot of activity on December 31st, 1969. But even if it was accurate, what's the purpose of including a date stamp here?
�
Hm, this is supposed to be displaying the dates of existence from the authority record. I will look into this issue further, thanks for pointing it out. I�ve filed a ticket here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5281
�
- Mobile:
��� - It's great to have a mobile friendly site.
��� - My main comment is that on a phone, the size of the institution graphic (when viewing a description) is a little overwhelming
��� - And similarly, my comment above about the graphics for the institutional browse goes double for the mobile version.
Mobile will receive a lot more usability testing and tweaks in the coming weeks. Thanks for the input.
�
I was also glad to notice slightly friendlier URLs, e.g. omitting ;rad
�
We like this too :D
�
Finally, this is really about what static content is included rather than AtoM functionality, but I think it's important to maintain information about the provincial networks that will be populating Archives Canada, currently available at http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/networks.html
�
All provincial networks included in Archives Canada will continue to be present in the final release. It will be up to Archives Canada to determine if and how they wish to maintain information about what networks are covered, but I agree that this is useful information for end users. In AtoM this could be included via the creation of a new Static Page.
�
These detailed comments should not detract from my overall reaction of being very impressed!
Thanks for the feedback Tim, we appreciate it!
�
Best,
�
On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 10:28 AM, JBushey, ICA-AtoM Product Manager <jes...@artefactual.com> wrote:
Dear Tim,
Thank you for your constructive feedback. I am preparing a response and will post to the forum when it is completed.
In the meantime, please review Dan's response to Creighton's feedback, as it provides additional information which touches upon some of your comments.
Regards,
Jessica BusheyTo view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ica-atom-users/0202bff8-15e4-4872-8fb0-eeb44fc7ac31%40googlegroups.com.
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�
�
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�
�
Dan Gillean
I've gone ahead and filed a high priority ticket for the facets displaying query strings instead of terms in French: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5284
I will also make a note of doing further testing in IE8. It is likely that we won't support full CSS compatibility and graceful degradation for anything earlier than IE8 with 2.0.
Regarding the virtual exhibitions: it is a tricky thing launching a demo site that features specific customizations for a national portal, while also hinting at the generic application's features, without confusing the two somewhat. We've been excited to show off the work we've been doing, but I understand that some aspects of this are not immediately apparent from the beta site. The demo site data will likely not be changing until the site goes live (meaning that the USask virtual exhibit feature will continue to bask in the spotlight for a while longer). After that it will be up to Archives Canada administrators to determine how they manage the front page.
It's good to hear that there's a use case for hosting many institution ISDIAH records without necessarily including archival description data associated with them. I will discuss the facet possibilities with our lead developer on his return and determine what is possible.
We will in fact be using fresh data collected form the provincial portals. Our plan is to collect this data in the coming month - so now's a good time to encourage users to do any data updates and cleanups for their own institutions!
We'll also be reviewing the wording on our labels before the final launch - thanks for your feedback on these matters.
I've also noted that you've updated some issue tickets related to 2.0 in our tracking system (available to all users curious about the state of our project here: https://projects.artefactual.com/) on which USask has been involved in developing the feature use cases. Thanks for the feedback - once I've connected with our developers, I'll follow up with you on the related tickets.
Best,
Hi Dan,
Further to the translation issue... I'm having trouble figuring out where this fits into the issue tracker, so instead of creating a new ticket I thought I'd follow up here in case this isn't a known issue:
In the French interface, some of the facets show up as part of the query path rather than the value of the field, e.g.:
/search?creators=79474&query=fonds...
I suspect this relates to the culture fallback, i.e. if there isn't a French equivalent of the term in question, it doesn't appear correctly.
E.g. search for "fonds" and then look at the facets for producteur and lieu.
Tim
On 25/06/2013 1:58 PM, Dan Gillean wrote:
Hi Tim,
Thanks for the useful feedback on the demo site. I've tried to respond to some of the points you've raised below:
- Virtual exhibits:
- I'm glad to see that the virtual exhibits database is being incorporated, but is the full feature coming later? I see a feature exhibit, but couldn't figure out how to search/browse the whole database
Unfortunately, a full virtual exhibits database or functional module has not currently been included in 2.0 – Archives Canada has requested that a single showcase exhibit be available on their landing page, and we have arranged this as part of their customizations for the launch. We can gladly post a snippet of the code used for this particular customization once 2.0 is released (perhaps on the development wiki), but implementing it will be the responsibility of end users until support for an expanded Virtual Exhibits module has been included in a future AtoM release. We would very much like to see this developed further – if SAIN or anyone else in our community is interested in supporting the development of such a module, please contact Artefactual off-list and we would be happy to discuss the ideal functionality of such a module further, and provide a quote for development.
- Using IE, when you mouse over the image, it turns black
Thanks for the tip – what version of IE were you using? The behavior is as expected in IE10. We will be doing further cross-browser testing before the launch, but for the soft-launch of the demo, we haven’t been able to test on all versions of all browsers. I will make a note and file an issue; please let me know which IE version you were using so I can reproduce.
- browsing institutions:
- I found this interface a bit clunky and I'm not sure how much the graphics add. Especially when we go live with imports from provincial networks, I think there will continue to be many institutions with no graphic. I would find columns indicating, say, province and number of descriptions more useful
- is it possible to add a facet for whether or not there are holdings?
Our hope is to encourage institutions to engage more with the platform – the final launch will also include the ability for individual institutions to choose the background color of their ISDIAH institutional authority record – and any archival description held by that institution will carry those theme colours around the site.
I will discuss the possibility of including a sort/view option that does not include graphics, and instead includes name and number of holdings, with our developers to see how much work would be involved.
A facet for excluding institutions without holdings might also be possible – though hopefully when the site goes live and all the provincial portal data has been included, this will be less relevant. As such, it’s not a priority fix right now. Please remember that this is merely a sample data set, which included a number of institutions without holdings, as they had been entered for their CAIN identifiers. Once we have received all the AC data for the final launch, we will be running merge scripts to identify duplicates without holdings and ensure they have been removed from the database if a populated record is present.
- search and browse options:
- I was going to say that I missed the ability to choose different browse options from any screen, but then I found the arrow on the edge of the search box. Handy once you know it's there, but I wonder if it's a bit subtle for casual users. Perhaps a text link or mouseover?
In the generic Dominion theme that will be included with the 2.0 release, this is currently displayed as a separate button that says “Browse,” which should make the distinction clearer. Do you feel that this would address the issue? Please keep in mind that the current header is part of the specific theme developed for Archives Canada – the generic header in 2.0 will be more condensed, and will make use of icons to manage administrative options such as the Admin settings, Add, Manage, and Import.
- I really like the faceted searching. But I wonder if a header would be helpful for those not used to this interface, E.g. "Narrow your search". Primo uses "Refine my results." (Creighton mentioned in this in the context of subject browse, but I think it would be useful whenever the facets are available)
I agree, thanks for the input. It shouldn’t be hard to include a label. I’m partial to “Narrrow your results,” as it can be reused in both search and browse showscreens – do you think this would add the needed clarity? I will discuss whether or not we can include this fix as a configurable option via the Admin > Menus settings, so users have the ability to change this via the GUI.
- what does the relevancy sort mean when no search terms have been entered (i.e. when you start with a browse)? Can this option be suppressed in that case?
Again this will depend on developer feedback. I’ll get back to you on the feasibility of including this.
- I couldn't figure out how to search within the archival institutions (e.g. search for a name of an institution) - as opposed to narrowing the results of a description search by institution. Similarly for authority records.
At the moment all searches are managed via the federated search bar – as you start typing, a faceted list of options, including archival institutions, and authority records, will display, with the option to view all relevant results displayed for each facet where there are multiple related records – for example, type “university” in the search bar, and click “all matching institutions” in the faceted search dropdown that appears. Unfortunately, there is a known issue with the search at the moment – when a space is entered, the facets disappear. Hitting enter always brings a showscreen of results for archival descriptions, and if the facet is selected when a word is half-typed (entering for example “uni” and then selecting “all matching institutions”), the literal string is searched, rarely returning any results.
We are aware we will need to improve this functionality before the final release. I would like to consider making search bar queries fuzzy searches by default to better support the use of the facets, for starters – I’ve filed an issue for discussion on the usability of this here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5276
Additionally, improvements may involve including dedicated search bars, as we are currently managing authority record and institution searching in AtoM 1.x – but we are open to other suggestions to increase usability. What would you like to see? I’ve filed an issue here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5277
- following up on your note about "search within entire collection", you might consider refining this label, e.g. to refer to the institution's holdings. There is potential ambiguity around the term "collection" especially when a single fonds/collection is being displayed.
Thanks – the current term is provisional, as this was a last minute feature included for feedback by our developers. See my previous response, posted via Jessica Bushey while I was away, for more on the current and future functionality of this feature. Refining the language used will also help us clarify the functionality. What do you think it should say, if we are restricting to the current fonds/collection, that will be clear to all end-users? Fonds might be a preferred archival term but many end users are not familiar with it; "holdings" to me suggests that it is searching all holdings of the institution and not only the current fonds/collection. Feedback welcome!
- in the brief view (search results or browse descriptions), I would suggesting adding institution name.
This will be included in the final release – please see https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5171 for the current proposal of the search/browse results details – I have included a mockup there of my suggestion for results, and would welcome further discussion on the issue ticket.
- the filter options seem to return the top 10 results in each category, which wasn't immediately obvious - is that correct? It would be ideal to be able to expand the lists - or at least be told that it's not a complete list. Here is an example of how we implemented this for a few projects; the full list opens in the main window.
(e.g. look under subject). I'm not sure if this is the built-in solr implementation, or specific to this site.
Thanks for the example! It’s useful to see other implementations of faceted results, and how some of these scenarios have been managed. You are correct; in the beta demo, only the top 10 results are displaying in the facets, though we would like to improve this for the full 2.0 release. I have filed an issue at the following link: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5278
- Advanced search:
- I like the interface, but it would be great to have the best of both worlds and also have access to the facets.
Good idea. Some of the facets, such as institution and level of description, are available via the advanced search filters on the left hand side. Others would be available in the search by adding criteria for place, subject, or name, for example – but this presumes a search parameter, rather than a browse filter. I will discuss the possibility of including facets here with our developers. In the meantime I’ve filed a ticket for the discussion here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5279
- Copyright status is interesting, but also potentially problematic since it's not usually that simple for anything but the item level. How is the search being applied if there are multiple levels with different values? Also, searching for "unknown" status should probably return results if the value is not populated. I think it's fair to say that most legacy RAD descriptions will include this information in a note.
Useful questions; I will discuss with our developers and respond. I agree that we should return all empty values in the “unknown” status results. An issue for this has been filed here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5280
- The label "narrow down your search results" seems confusing, since it appears even before a search has been done.
What would you suggest? Would “Narrow your search” be clearer?
- In FF and Chrome, the select list for institutions expands nicely to fit the institution names, but this doesn't seem to be working in IE
Again, which version of IE did you note this in? In IE10 I’ve encountered no issues, but we haven’t tested all versions for backwards compatibility yet.
- French version:
- I noticed that a few elements aren't translated on the advanced search. I'm guessing this is still in progress, but if not I can check this in more detail.
We’re still working to improve the interface translations before the final launch, but there are a lot of new strings throughout the application, so please help us catch them all and let us know where you’ve seen terms that haven’t translated. Thanks to this comment I have re-opened our ticket on the translations, and added notes for the terms here. See the ticket here (and add anything else you find, please!): https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5129
- Authority records
- Right now it looks like there was a lot of activity on December 31st, 1969. But even if it was accurate, what's the purpose of including a date stamp here?
Hm, this is supposed to be displaying the dates of existence from the authority record. I will look into this issue further, thanks for pointing it out. I’ve filed a ticket here: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5281
- Mobile:
- It's great to have a mobile friendly site.
- My main comment is that on a phone, the size of the institution graphic (when viewing a description) is a little overwhelming
- And similarly, my comment above about the graphics for the institutional browse goes double for the mobile version.
Mobile will receive a lot more usability testing and tweaks in the coming weeks. Thanks for the input.
I was also glad to notice slightly friendlier URLs, e.g. omitting ;rad
We like this too :D
Finally, this is really about what static content is included rather than AtoM functionality, but I think it's important to maintain information about the provincial networks that will be populating Archives Canada, currently available at http://www.archivescanada.ca/english/networks.html
All provincial networks included in Archives Canada will continue to be present in the final release. It will be up to Archives Canada to determine if and how they wish to maintain information about what networks are covered, but I agree that this is useful information for end users. In AtoM this could be included via the creation of a new Static Page.
These detailed comments should not detract from my overall reaction of being very impressed!
Thanks for the feedback Tim, we appreciate it!
Best,
On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 10:28 AM, JBushey, ICA-AtoM Product Manager <jes...@artefactual.com> wrote:
Dear Tim,
Thank you for your constructive feedback. I am preparing a response and will post to the forum when it is completed.
In the meantime, please review Dan's response to Creighton's feedback, as it provides additional information which touches upon some of your comments.
Regards,
Jessica BusheyTo view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ica-atom-users/0202bff8-15e4-4872-8fb0-eeb44fc7ac31%40googlegroups.com.
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Creighton Barrett
So sorry for the delay. Thanks for the detailed responses to my comments and questions. I really appreciate all the clarifications. I will respond to Dan's further clarifications but have responded to your questions in the text below:
At this stage we are still working out all the bugs in this new feature. The intention is to restrict searching to within a single institution's holdings. So you have two options - Global Search of the entire database or Search within a single institution.
- The "Search within the entire collection" feature is a really nice addition, but it doesn't seem to be working. I search for keywords in the description I know exist and get no results. Is that feature meant to search within the finding aid or within the entire holdings of the repository?
- When you Browse by Subject, it is really nice to have the Places filter to further narrow the list of resources. But it wasn't clear to me at first that the Places are in fact a filter for the list of resources. Could "Places" be relabelled into something like "Narrow this List" or "Filter by Place Name"?
Could you clarify further. When viewing the Browse Subjects page after selecting a Subject, you would like the PLACES filter on the left-side of the screen to have the option of being labelled "Filter by Place Name"? I'm asking because it might be possible to simple enable Admin to change the label. Let me know, and I can make a task request.
- Can a filter be added to narrow the subject browse by Institution?
To clarify. You would like an Institution filter added to the view Browse Subjects page after selecting a Subject? Let me know, and I can make a task request.
The current action appears to be that the Subject Filter shows the subjects associated with the Browse Place result. If you selected a Place that didn't have many subjects associated with it, the list will be empty beneath the ALL.
- When you Browse by Place, it seems like there is a Subject filter. But it is limited to "All" and doesn't show the subject terms associated with a Place.
What do you suggest for making it easier? Let me know and I can create a task request.
- When you browse People and Organizations, it is difficult to find the link to materials created by the entity. I think it's just because most name records will only be associated with one fonds or collection so the list isn't long enough to catch the eye. For example: http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/25-year-club
Another option would be to display the materials inside the Authority record box.
ArchivesCanada2.0 is running the new Dominion theme, of course, with customizations in colour etc.. the maps will be available in AtoM 2.0 with the Dominion theme. There will be no other theme available in AtoM 2.0.
- I REALLY like the maps on top of the Repository profiles (I saw it on York University Archives and Special Collections page, at least). How was that done and is that a feature that will be rolled out for all the themes?
Creighton Barrett
Question #3 - The “search the entire collection” was a feature that our lead AtoM developer kindly included at the last minute based on my repeated requests for such a functionality, despite the fact that its development has not been supported. Having used AtoM in archival work settings many times, I am very aware of the strong use case for being able to restrict searches to a specific collection, and it is something I hope to see included in the final version of 2.0. At the moment, the feature included is in fact a half step toward this – the treeview search is limited to title and identifier, and provides users with a means of navigating more quickly through the specific collection to the desired description when such information is known. You can use wildcards for better results, for example:
* Multiple character wildcard. Example: galax* will find galaxy and galaxies, but not galactic.
~ Fuzzy search. Will return results with words similar to the term. Example: fjord~ will find fjord, fjords, ford, form, fonds, etc.
I haven’t tested to see if ALL Boolean operators are functional in the treeview search, but I assume so. Find more details here: https://www.ica-atom.org/doc/Advanced_search
My hope, as I said, is that this will be expanded in AtoM 2.0 to provide support for searching all fields, and that a search/browse page of results limited to a single institution will be provided. Jésus, our lead AtoM developer, tells me that given 2.0’s current architecture, this should not be too difficult to implement, but I must reiterate that this is NOT a sponsored feature – consequently its inclusion in the AtoM 2.0 release this fall will depend entirely on the timeline of our current development, and the nature of any challenges we encounter along the way. This feature is not guaranteed. I will continue to be pushing for support for this feature, as I believe it is useful for a multi-institutional portal. We have an issue ticket for the planned feature here, if you’re interested: https://projects.artefactual.com/issues/5200. Hopefully my response clarifies the current functionality of this feature and its plans for further development.
My first experience with the initial layout was that it is a little confusing to have this option appear in a Search tab that is only available when you are viewing an individual finding aid. Perhaps it would be better to make this search box available when you are viewing the Repository profile (e.g., http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/law-society-of-upper-canada-archives) and when you are browsing all the holdings (e.g., http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/informationobject/browse?repos=3237). As it is now, with the text "Search within the entire collection," it could be interpreted as a search within the finding aid.
Question #7 - My understanding is that the Places we have included in the ArchivesCanada demo are drawn from data that you can currently find in the Archeion Portal: http://www.archeion.ca/;taxonomy/browse/42. Archeion has put a wonderful amount of energy into organizing the places taxonomy hierarchically, so that Halifax (NS) is nested under the term Nova Scotia, for example – AtoM’s new interface has merely added a context menu similar to the archival description treeview to better display this information. Thus, the functionality and nesting of the Places context menu will be entirely dependent on the data and how it is organized.
Question #9- The maps are achieved by including latitude and longitude coordinates in the ISDIAH record’s contact profile. I know that for the Archeion data (which we received first, and were therefore able to work with the most), our AtoM developer, Jésus managed to run a script that discovered and pulled this information from Google Analytics (if the rest of the contact information was complete but lats and longs weren’t present). This means that there is a method of retrieving this information via script, but you’d have to speak to a developer about this. With the AtoM 2.0 release I don’t believe that AtoM will be automatically doing this – I am pretty sure that institutions will have to look up their own lats and longs and include this information in the contact area of the ISDIAH record if they want a map to automatically display.
Creighton
Dan Gillean
It's Jessica's turn to travel for conferences, so allow me to respond to some of your questions and comments.
Okay, good to know. I really like that you will be able to restrict searching to within a single institution's holdings. Jésus should be commended for taking the extra step to develop something that hasn't been sponsored. My first experience with the initial layout was that it is a little confusing to have this option appear in a Search tab that is only available when you are viewing an individual finding aid. Perhaps it would be better to make this search box available when you are viewing the Repository profile (e.g., http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/law-society-of-upper-canada-archives) and when you are browsing all the holdings (e.g., http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/informationobject/browse?repos=3237). As it is now, with the text "Search within the entire collection," it could be interpreted as a search within the finding aid.
The "search within the entire collection" in the treeview/context menu IS in fact just for searching within the finding aid. However, AtoM 2.0 does include the ability to search within a single institution. The federated search bar in the header will allow for either a) a global search, OR b) when viewing an institution ISDIAH record OR an archival description held within an institution, a search restricted to the holdings of that institution.
For example, the Law Society's ISDIAH page: http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/law-society-of-upper-canada-archives
Click on the search bar while viewing this ISDIAH record, and you will note that a radio button appears, giving you the option for global search or "Search the Law Society of Upper Canada Archives."
This same option will appear if you are viewing an archival description held by the Law Society, as here: http://archivescanada.accesstomemory.org/albert-abramson-collection
Again, if you place your cursor in the search bar, you will see you can restrict the search to anything held by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
The search in the Treeview / Context menu (i.e., "Search within the entire collection") appears ONLY when viewing an archival description - it is for searching within the finding aid of that particular holding (i.e., the collection/fonds description and all of its children). As I noted in the previous post, currently this searches only title and identifier (i.e. it is useful for navigating in a deep hierarchy when the title or identifier of a child record is known), but we *hope* to expand the restricted search to all fields within the current fonds/collection.
If we do manage to include this (which as I have mentioned, is unsponsored and therefore not guaranteed), users will then have the ability to both a) search within all holdings of a single institution, and b) search within all records of a single holding/finding aid/archival description.
In general, I think enabling Admin to change labels is a great idea. There are a handful of labels we would probably change (e.g., Browse Archival Description -> Browse Finding Aids) but only some labels can be edited through Admin. But yes, my comment was that when viewing the "Browse Subjects" page I would like the PLACES filter to be clear that it is a filter. One can deduce this from the numbers but we like labels :)
Depending on the work involved, there is no guarantee this ability (to customize the facet labels via the GUI) will be included in the 2.0 release, but this way there is a place to track design considerations, development possibilities, and release candidacy.
Yes. Browse Subjects has the Places filter and I thought it would be helpful for someone to be able to filter the subjects by Institution. When you're browsing by Archival Description, you can filter by all of the facets. I think it would be great to have this functionality available for all the page views.
I think it could benefit from the styling used in the other filters. For example, the filters you see when you browse by Archival Description are a darker gray box and the label is large upper case font. But with the Creator of box, the label is a different font, lower case, and outside of the darker gray box. The Creator of box also appears to be slightly higher than the other filters. A bit of padding on the top might help.
I see, so it is a question of the number of results? I noticed the same issue when you are browsing by Institution. You can filter by Creator, and get the list even when there is only one finding aid associated with a creator. But Name, Place, and Subject only show ALL. Is this desired?
Do you meant that anyone looking to use AtoM 2.0 will have to use the Dominion theme until other themes are developed? We are really enjoying the Trillium theme.
Yes, going forward, Artefactual will only be maintaining one theme with the packaged AtoM releases - QA testing and maintaining functionality across 4 different themes has significantly reduced the speed and increased the complexity of our development cycle. We hope to encourage a forum for theme development and sharing among the community.
Some notes on this, however:
1) The Dominion theme is NOT what is currently on view in the Archives Canada demo - this is a custom theme developed for the CCA as part of the Archives Canada development process. The Dominion theme will be fairly lightweight and clean - if you like Trillium, we think you'll like Dominon. When we have a more stable release candidate, I will see what I can do about making some screenshots available for those curious.
2) In addition to the abilities for institutions to upload their logos and banners, Admin users will be able to customize the background color of the institution ISDIAH record via the GUI - and this color will be "sticky," so that any archival descriptions held by the institution will use the same customized background colors, to better be able to associate them with the institution. So there is a certain amount of theming/customization built into the application itself, which we hope our users will be excited about.
Artefactual will continue offering custom-theming as contract service for clients; users interested are invited to contact us off-list for quotes. Additionally, I intend to work with our developers to ensure that the 2.0 development documentation includes clear and up-to-date guidance for users interested in developing their own themes as well. Ideally, I would like to see a place within the community resources where we could create a forum for theme showcasing and code sharing. We will also continue to include example users on our list, currently maintained here: https://www.ica-atom.org/doc/ICA-AtoM_users
Wow, that is cool. But I can't see how the Places are organized hierarchically. We have been talking about the merits of Getty Place Names versus LCSH Place Names. Getty does a better job with the hierarchical organization of places, and with the new menu in AtoM, I can see that there might be a better case for abandoning our practice of LSCH in preference for Getty names. But, as you say, it depends entirely on how the data is organized.
No problem there, IMO. It's pretty easy to get lats and longs and enhance individual profiles (of course, we have a GIS Centre downstairs, but still...). It's a cool feature. We have been chatting about how to visualize the collections on a map using place names, hence our interest in the approach to Place names in ArchivesCanada and how AtoM handles the data.
We would LOVE to see georeferencing and map visualization abilities developed for AtoM - if you have developers who are interested in pursuing this, do let us know how we can support them. If you've got an institution looking to fund this kind of development, do consider contacting Artefactual. Either way, keep us apprised of the ways in which you pursue this further!
Once again, thanks for your feedback and participation in the discussion - we're happy to hear from our community members how we can improve our application in advance of the 2.0 launch.
George Duimovich
Any update / additional details on support for the virtual exhibits functional module since your June update (below)?
George Duimovich
Carleton University
Dan Gillean
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