iVia

Chapter 4: Adding Records

The primary purpose of the iVia Database Management pages is to help adders create records for inclusion in the database. This chapter describes how to add a record describing an Internet resource.

Create a new record

To start adding a new resource to the database, go to the Adders' Homepage and click on the Create a new record link. Upon selecting the Create a new record option, the Record Adder page is opened. This page is shown in Figure 5.1 below.

Figure 5.1: The Record Adder.

The body of the Record Adder form is a series of data fields that the Adder can use to supply metadata describing the resource. These fields have specific purposes, described below, though individual Adders have some freedom in how they document each resource. Institutions may provide their own editorial guidelines for these fields like the INFOMINE Editorial Guidelines or the lii.org Manual for Creating Records.

The data fields, shown in Figure 5.2 above, are as follows:

• URL: The URL of the resource. This must be a valid URL; if it is not valid iVia will warn the user and attempt to convert it to a valid URL.
• Title: The Title of the resource.
• Creator: A semi-colon separated list of the individuals and/or institutions who created the resource. (Formerly called "Authors".)
• Maintainer email (optional): The email address of the maintainer of the resource.
• Subjects: A semi-colon separated list of Library of Congress Subject Headings describing the resource.
• Keywords: A semi-colon separated list of additional keywords describing the resource.
• Description: A description of the resource content. This field is often filled with a properly-attributed extract from the resource. In some cases, separate descriptions may be provided for academic, life-long learner, and K12 audiences.
• Categories: The top-level categories to which the resource belongs. At least one category must be selected.
• MyI (optional): A semi-colon separated list of MyI category codes. These codes are added from a list that appears when the user clicks on the List choices button.
• Audience levels: The intended audience of the resource.
• Access: This field describes whether the resource is a freely available Internet resource, a fee-based Internet resource, a partially fee-based Internet resource, or a local resource. Local resources are, by definition, those that are not reachable over the Internet like CD-ROMs or local on-line catalogs (or even books!).
• Available To: For resources that are identified in the Access field as fee-based, partially fee-based, or local, this field contains a list of the participating campuses where an institutional subscription is available. For free resources, this field is empty.

Along the top of the form are a set of buttons that provide access to useful iVia tools. The buttons are:

• Abandon adding: This button cancels the current adding session and removes the new record from the pending database.
• Duplicate check: This button launches the duplicate checking program in a new window. The duplicate checker reads the URL and Title from the form and searches the live database for records with similar metadata.
• Metadata extractor: This button launches the iVia metadata extractor in a new window. The metadata extractor reads the URL from the Record Adder form, downloads the web page content, and attempts to extract its Title, Creator, Keywords and Description.
• Preview: This button saves the changes to the record adder form in the pending database (described below).

Previewing the record

After filling in the Record Adder form the user presses the preview button (Figure 5.2, top right). This loads the Preview New Records page where the Adder can examine these changes. A URL and Title must be supplied before a record can be previewed. Figure 5.3 shows the preview page.

Figure 5.2: The Preview New Records page.

When the user previews their work, it is saved in the pending database and displayed for their inspection. The buttons at the top of the page represent several possible future actions, and the body of the page displays the information that has thus far been entered.

The Continue adding button returns the Adder to the Record Editor form where they can further update their work. The Submit for review button is used by the Adder to signal they have finished working on the record are are ready to forward it to collaborators at their institution for their input. The Abandon adding button can be used to discard the new record completely.

The optional Commit to live database button is used to add the completed record to the live database, where it is search-able by the iVia patrons. This button is not available to some adders. In Figure 5.2, the button is not displayed because the record is not ready to be committed. The reason is given in small text below the buttons: "This record cannot be committed to the live database: This record requires at least one subject. This record requires a description." When the user has fixed these omissions, they will be offered the option of submitting the record to the live database.