Guides for New Users
Guides for New Users
Whether you are new to using our Digital Archives, new to using and searching databases, or simply need a refresher on how to use Booleans, the guides below can help!
- Guide to Searching: Learn how to use both the basic and advanced search functions. The guide also covers how you may search within a specific collection, within a specific document, and how controlled vocabularies allow you to perform a linked metadata search.
- Guide to Refining a Search: Learn how to further refine your search using filters and facets
- Guide to Viewing Photographs and Documents: Learn how to use the image viewers, as well as the contents and functions of all other panes that appear in an item record.
- Guide to Watching and Listening to AV Content: Learn how to use the video and audio players, as well as the contents and functions of all other panes that appear in an item record.
- Guide to Photo Location Maps: Learn how to browse photos by location using the City of Santa Rosa's Historical Map Viewer, as well as Google Maps
Frequently Asked Questions
1) May I download images from Digital Archives?
Images are not yet available for download directly from our digital archive. We expect this feature to become available in the future, although a date for it is not yet available. In the meantime, if you are in need of a copy of images in our digital collections, please contact us: Sonoma County Library Digital Collections.
9) What are controlled vocabularies?
Controlled vocabularies are collections of terms and phrases which are used to describe digital objects and link together similar and/or related documents. Controlled vocabularies are used extensively as part of our metadata. Every controlled vocabulary term will be surrounded by a light gray bubble. When you click a controlled vocabulary term, the system will run a search whose results include all items which contain that controlled vocabulary term in their metadata. Controlled vocabularies are also an important tool for further refining searches using filters.
10) What is faceted searching?
Faceted searching allows you to augment, refine, and change the parameters of a search on the fly without starting a new search. Facets and filters can be applied to any search results or when browsing by using the left-hand "Filter results" menu. For more information on how to use facets and filters, please read our Guide to Refining a Search.
11) Why does transcription in the transcript pane not reflect any special formatting?
Transcriptions, as they appear in the transcript pane, beside the original document, are unformatted "raw" text. This means that any special formatting, such as strikethroughs and superscripts, and some special characters, will not appear in the unformatted transcription. The use of unformatted text is to ensure that the text of the transcription is properly machine-readable to best support searching within the text. For more information of viewing transcriptions, please read our Guide to Viewing Transcription.
1) What are Quartex and Adam Matthew Digital?
The digital archive is constructed on Quartex, a digital asset management system. The platform is created and managed by Adam Matthew Digital, an academic publisher located in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Advanced Feature Guides
If you want to explore some of the digital archive's additional features and further enhance your user experience, these guides will explain some of the more advanced and niche features that are available to you.
- Guide to My Account: This guide describes the benefits of having a registered Quartex account, details how you register a Quartex account, and describes in detail the bookmarking and search saving features which are enabled by having a Quartex account.
- Guide to using the IIIF Viewer with Transcriptions: This guide provides instructions for how you can use the IIIF viewer to view original documents and their literal transcriptions side by side in the same browser window. The IIIF viewer is not user friendly, but is powerful because it allows you compare multiple documents in the same browser window from any IIIF compatible digital repository.
Guide to My Account
Learn about the My Account feature and how it can help your research.Guide to using the IIIF Viewer with Transcriptions
Learn about how you can use the IIIF Viewer as an alternate method to view original documents and literal transcription side byGuides for New Users
Guides for New Users
Whether you are new to using our Digital Archives, new to using and searching databases, or simply need a refresher on how to use Booleans, the guides below can help!
- Guide to Searching: Learn how to use both the basic and advanced search functions. The guide also covers how you may search within a specific collection, within a specific document, and how controlled vocabularies allow you to perform a linked metadata search.
- Guide to Refining a Search: Learn how to further refine your search using filters and facets
- Guide to Viewing Photographs and Documents: Learn how to use the image viewers, as well as the contents and functions of all other panes that appear in an item record.
- Guide to Watching and Listening to AV Content: Learn how to use the video and audio players, as well as the contents and functions of all other panes that appear in an item record.
- Guide to Photo Location Maps: Learn how to browse photos by location using the City of Santa Rosa's Historical Map Viewer, as well as Google Maps
Frequently Asked Questions
1) May I download images from Digital Archives?
Images are not yet available for download directly from our digital archive. We expect this feature to become available in the future, although a date for it is not yet available. In the meantime, if you are in need of a copy of images in our digital collections, please contact us: Sonoma County Library Digital Collections.
9) What are controlled vocabularies?
Controlled vocabularies are collections of terms and phrases which are used to describe digital objects and link together similar and/or related documents. Controlled vocabularies are used extensively as part of our metadata. Every controlled vocabulary term will be surrounded by a light gray bubble. When you click a controlled vocabulary term, the system will run a search whose results include all items which contain that controlled vocabulary term in their metadata. Controlled vocabularies are also an important tool for further refining searches using filters.
10) What is faceted searching?
Faceted searching allows you to augment, refine, and change the parameters of a search on the fly without starting a new search. Facets and filters can be applied to any search results or when browsing by using the left-hand "Filter results" menu. For more information on how to use facets and filters, please read our Guide to Refining a Search.
11) Why does transcription in the transcript pane not reflect any special formatting?
Transcriptions, as they appear in the transcript pane, beside the original document, are unformatted "raw" text. This means that any special formatting, such as strikethroughs and superscripts, and some special characters, will not appear in the unformatted transcription. The use of unformatted text is to ensure that the text of the transcription is properly machine-readable to best support searching within the text. For more information of viewing transcriptions, please read our Guide to Viewing Transcription.
1) What are Quartex and Adam Matthew Digital?
The digital archive is constructed on Quartex, a digital asset management system. The platform is created and managed by Adam Matthew Digital, an academic publisher located in the United Kingdom and the United States.
Advanced Feature Guides
If you want to explore some of the digital archive's additional features and further enhance your user experience, these guides will explain some of the more advanced and niche features that are available to you.
- Guide to My Account: This guide describes the benefits of having a registered Quartex account, details how you register a Quartex account, and describes in detail the bookmarking and search saving features which are enabled by having a Quartex account.
- Guide to using the IIIF Viewer with Transcriptions: This guide provides instructions for how you can use the IIIF viewer to view original documents and their literal transcriptions side by side in the same browser window. The IIIF viewer is not user friendly, but is powerful because it allows you compare multiple documents in the same browser window from any IIIF compatible digital repository.