Spt Administration

THL Toolbox > Reference > Bibliographies > THL SPT User's Manual > SPT Administration

SPT Administration

Contributor(s): THL Staff.

An editor first needs to create an SPT user ID and password. This can also be done for them. The user ID should be the first letter of their first name and their last name, with no caps or spaces (example: “jschmoe” for Joe Schmoe). This is important because the user ID identifies for the viewer of the record its creator and editor.

After the user ID and password are created, the editor-in-chief must assign administrative privileges. The editor-in-chief does this by clicking on “Administration: Edit User Account.” There s/he can search for that user, or just “show all users.” S/he can then edit each account and specify whether they can add resources, change classifications, or change option lists. In addition, one can use this to determine which users in general (i.e., non-editors) can “add comments” to bibliographical records.

See the “Administration Help” link under Administration for detailed help on the administrative features. The full list of options is as follows:

  • Edit System Configuration
  • Customize System Appearance
  • Edit OAI Configuration
  • Edit RSS Export Parameters
  • Add or Remove Forums: this allows the administrator to activate or deactivate the discussion forum function. THL does not use these since they are not was powerful as other free forums software that we do utilize.
  • Edit User Account: this allows the administrator to change privileges and details for user login accounts.
  • Edit New Account E-Mail Text
  • Import User Accounts
  • Track User Comments
  • Metadata Field Editor: this allows the administrator to add new fields in the catalog template, or revise fields.
  • Order Metadata Fields: this allows the administrator to specify the order that fields appear in the data entry template, and in the final display of records.
  • Qualifier Editor
  • Import Data
  • Export Data
  • Purge SPT Sample Records
  • Rebuild Search Database
  • Rebuild Recommender Database
  • SPT Revision History
  • Update Registration
  • Administration Help

SPT Metadata Management

Metadata can be managed within Scout Portal through choosing the “Metadata Tool.” By clicking on “Metadata Tool,” a new list of metadata options will appear to the right below. Be careful – they may appear off screen, so that you have to scroll down to see them.
The full list of options are as follows:

  • Add New Resource: this opens a blank bibliographical record in a new browser window.
  • Edit Resource: this allows you to edit an existing bibliographical record.
  • Add New Controlled Names: this allows you to add controlled names in any of the controlled name fields. Please note that the controlled names are specific to each field – so even though “Joe Schmoe” has been entered as an “author/creator” controlled name, you have to add it again as an “editor” controlled name if you want “Joe Schmoe” as an editor. Note: when using the “Add New Controlled Names” function you must select the type of controlled name from the dropdown menu for each controlled name you want to add.
  • Edit Controlled Names: for editing controlled names that already exist. Note: when using the “Edit Controlled Names” function you must select the type of controlled name from the dropdown menu for each controlled name you want to edit.
  • Edit Option Lists: for editing options for each of the option lists used in the data entry form, as well as in the search interface.
  • Add/Edit Classifications: allows editing of the thematic classifications. This does NOT allow you to classify a resource – that must be done through “edit resource”. Rather it allows you to add or rename classifications themselves.
  • Metadata Help: detailed help for use of the metadata options.

The Metadata Tool allows one to customize the metadata in three ways:

1. Add New Controlled Names and Edit Controlled Names allow you to create and edit a list of names for each controlled name field that bibliographers can then call upon when making bibliographical entries (see details immediately above). Clicking on the “Add New Controlled Name” button takes you to a screen where you can type a name to see if it is already in the list, and to then add it if it is not. You don’t have to type in the full name so it is user friendly. You can get a full list of controlled names for a particular field (author/creator, editor, publisher, etc.) by typing in an asterisk or a single space (note: we want to improve the system so it has a “display all” button for these instead of forcing the esoteric use of a space, or at least add an annotation that says “type space to display all choices.” Current controlled name fields are as follows:

  • Author/Creator
  • Editor
  • Translator
  • Contributor
  • Publisher
  • Normalized publisher place
  • Subject
  • Classification
  • Keyword
  • Series title
  • Series editor
  • Source editor
  • Compiler
  • Illustrator
  • Annotator

2. Edit Option Lists: this allows you to add options to the dropdown menu for a specific field. Select the field to which you want to add options. The program then displays the full list of current options for that field, to which you can add options. Current dropdown option lists are:

  • Resource Type
  • Language
  • Audience
  • Format

3. Add/Edit Classifications: this allows the addition of new classifications at any level in the hierarchy of thematic classifications used for creating a browsing view of the bibliographies. Thus when we talk about a thematic bibliography managed by one person, the “theme” in question is a “classification” managed here. It is more user friendly than the preceding since you get to see the classifications overall as you add in, though at present you can only see one level at a time – there is no expandable/collapsible view. See the program for the full extent of choices that we have set up ourselves. Please note that these classifications will ONLY appear in the browse mode if they have at least one bibliographical entry – otherwise you can only see the full nested hierarchy of classifications in this metadata management view.

The importance of controlled names is as follows:

  1. Using controlled names limits both the errors and variations of names. Name variants easily creep into the data in both subtle and obvious ways. From personal experience, I can say this is happens so easily that it is often easier to make a mistake than get it correct. Quickly it becomes difficult to tell whether John Smith is the same person as John Q. Smith. In a more obvious example, standardizing (and tracking) names like IBM vs. IBM, Inc. vs. International Business Machines vs. International Business Machines Corporation, etc. Using controlled names allows you to keep all these together in the database easily (in variant names field). A text field would not provide this check. To assure some amount of continuity throughout a large database, either complex external rules would have to be in place or another separate database to track and maintain these names. Not to mention someone to track and correct variants in the database.
  2. In the software controlled names provides a common link to all records linked by a name. For example, in the full record display controlled names are linked to all other records using that same name. This provides an easy method for users to browse the database and find related records.
  3. This link is useful for data maintenance and editing. A controlled name allows you edit the name (or add a new variant) once and have that change alter every associated record.

Quality Control

Go slow and check your work for problems with spelling, typos, capitalization – verify and be proud of your work.

Announcements

We never delete announcements. Old announcements gradually move to the bottom of the announcement queue and form an archive.

Import and Export

Our goal is to be able to import from Endnote, but also to be able to export specific bibliographies for use offline. The Scout Portal Toolkit has import/export features but we need to document precisely what they can do.

Linking to Specific Bibliographical Classifications

Each classification has a unique URL so you can easily link from anywhere in THL to a specific classification, such as Medicine, etc.

Known SPT Bugs

  • When you omit a required field and submit, it deletes much of your work. We have minimzed the effect of this by reducing to two the number of required fields that are not automatically generated
  • The result screen upon submission repeats many categories in its display and thus is of very limited use.
  • In the announcement “story” entry box, the navigation bar on the right doesn’t work properly. If the cursor is at the top of the box, clicking on the down arrow takes you all the way to the bottom rather than one click’s worth. If the cursor is at the bottom, clicking on the up arrow takes you about half a line up only; clicking on it again takes you DOWN to the original position.
  • Mac: Only IE preserves the proportions of each box when adjusting the size of the browser screen. Alternatively, when viewing these with Netscape or Safari the screen must be kept large or parts of the boxes start to overlap each other, obscuring what is forced underneath. Is this due to an inherent limitation of these two browsers, or can it be corrected?

Provided for unrestricted use by the external link: Tibetan and Himalayan Library