How are the collections organized on the web? Step 1: Make newly submitted collections accessible through the web Step 2: Learn how collections are classified in Microsoft Access How to create a new primary/secondary level in the dbo_Classification table? Create a new primary level Create a new secondary level Step 3: Learn how to fill out the dbo_ClassMapping table Classifying by Subject Classifying by Chronological focus Classifying by Geographical focus Classifying by Language Classifying by Original format

The Inventory of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Digital Projects uses 5 categories to classify each collection. Each category has few primary and various secondary levels of description:

• Subject
• Chronological focus
• Geographical focus
• Language
• Original format

 

All of the above listed pages are displayed on the web using PHP files that are linked directly to the Microsoft Access database. Microsoft Access is the primary database software that the library uses for the digtal projects inventory. Once the project is described and classified in the different tables in Microsoft Access, the updated information appears authomatically on the web and it's accessible through the inventory browse and search page.

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How are the collections organized on the web?

 

Example: Language is one of the main categories used to classify and browse collections. If you open the link provided above, you will see 6 primary levels:

 

• Baltic Languages
• Finno-Ugric languages
• Germanic languages
• Romance languages
• Slavic Languages
• Other language groups.

 

Each one of these primary levels might have secondary levels. In the case of Baltic Languages, you will see 2 secondary levels:

• Latvian (6)
• Lithuanian (4).

The digit after the secondary levels shows the number of inventory records available for each of them. When another record is entered and classified in Microsoft Access, this digit will update automatically.

 

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Tip: In order to open any of the existing tables in Microsoft Access, open the program and click on Inventory database.mdb file that appears at the top right part of the screen.

 

Note: The Microsoft Access database is accessible only for the Inventory staff of the Slavic and Eastern European library at the University of Illinois.

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Step 1: Make newly submitted collections accessible through the web

 

The procedure is similar to the one that has been already described for newly submitted projects. Once you have all the information about the new collection in the dbo_Collections table, scroll the table to the right and go to the "Approved" field. Change the n that has appeared there automatically to y. Now the collection record is approved and it will appear in the web as an inventory record. After that, even the slightest change in information about a collection in Microsoft Access will be reflected in the online inventory record.

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Step 2: Learn how collections are classified in Microsoft Access

 

Open the table dbo_Classification and print off a copy of it. The information in this table is going to be used for the further classification of each newly submitted project. In fact, this classification table is the most complicated table that the Inventory uses. Instructions on how to read and use the information in this table follow below.

 

There are three columns in the table:

 

id	name	parent id
This classification id for collections, like the one for projects, is a unique number that is going to be used to fill out the dbo_ClassMapping table, which is exporting the information from the database to the web.	This field defines all the primary and secondary levels of the 5 main categories that the inventory uses to classify collections: Subject, Chronological focus, Geographical focus, Language, Original format. For example, the Subject category has 10 primary levels: Arts, Bibliographical sources, Cartography, Encyclopedias and dictionaries, History, Linguistics, Literature, Periodicals, Photographs, Religion and Culture. Under each of these primary levels, there are several secondary levels (please, refer to the links provided at the top of this page).	The parent id is a digit that organizes the primary and secondary levels of classification from the middle column of this table. For example, all the primary levels of Subject have parent id=0. The primary levels of Chronological focus have parent id=1000. Geographical focus uses parent id=2000 for its primary levels of classification. Primary levels in Language have parent id=3000. In the case of Original format the parent id=4000 for all the primary levels. The secondary levels are organized using the classification id of their primary level. For example: one of the primary levels of Subject is Linguistics with classification id=31. Lingusitics has several secondary levels: Croatian language/classification id=32, Encyclopedias/classification id=33, Idioms/classification id=34, Slavic studies/classification id=161, Russian language/classification id=171, etc. All those secondary levels have parent id=31, which coincides with the classification id=31 for Linguistics. The parent id of each secondary level is the same as the classification id of its primary level.

 

How to create a new primary/secondary level in the dbo_Classification table?

 

If none of the existing primary or secondary levels in the dbo_Classification table can be used to describe a new collection, you can create a new level by refering to the LC Headinds.

 

Create a new primary level

 

 

Create a new secondary level

 

 

When these alterations in the dbo_Classification table have been made, the new primary/secondary levels will appear on the web under the category to which they have been assigned.

 

 

Step 3: Learn how to fill out the dbo_ClassMapping table

 

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Classifying by Subject

 

In the Subject field there should be two levels of description: primary and secondary. The names of the existing primary and secondary levels can be taken directly from the browsing web page.

 

• Example: Let's presume that the primary level in the Subject field is Encyclopedias and dictionaries and its secondary level is Ukrainian literature.

 

Subject

Encyclopedias and dictionaries/Ukrainian literature

 

 

• In the dbo_Classification table Encyclopedias and dictionaries appear under classification id 14 in the left column. This digit is the same as the parent id for the secondary level, Ukrainian literature, which Class_id is 22. In the dbo_ClassMapping table you should enter the ID of the collection (taken from the dbo_Collections table) and the Class_id only for the SECONDARY LEVEL. So, if we have a collection with ID 898 and the id for Ukrainian literature is 22, here is how the dbo_ClassMapping table should look like:

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	22

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Classifying by Chronological focus

 

• This category is a little more complicated compared to the other four. For example, if the chronolocical focus of the new collection is 1958, its primary level will be 20th century which, in our database should be entered as 1900H. (NOTE: The chronological headings, such as "1900H" are taken from Historical Abstracts.) The secondary level deals with a specific decade, in this case 1950s. In Microsoft Access this decade should appear as 1950D. As a result, we will have the primary and the secondary level appearing in the dbo_Collections table in the following way:

 

Chronological focus

1900H/1950D

 

If the chronological period is, for instance, 1894-1945, it should be listed in the dbo_Collections table like this:

 

 

Chronological focus

1800H-1900H/1890D-1940D

 

If this information has been entered in the web-submission form in a different way, the format can be changed directly in Microsoft Access.

 

• Let's classify a collection with Chronological focus 1894-1945. In this case we are going to have every different century as a separate primary level and every different decade as a separate secondary level. The primary levels are: 1800H and 1900H. The secondary level for 1800H is 1890D and the secondary levels for 1900H are 1900D, 1910D, 1920D, 1930D, 1940D. In the dbo_Classification table the classification ids of all those secondary levels appear as follows:

 

Class_id	name	parent_id
72	1890D	62
74	1900D	73
75	1910D	73
76	1920D	73
77	1930D	73
78	1940D	73

 

• The next step is to export the information from the dbo_Classification table to the the dbo_ClassMapping table. In the dbo_ClassMapping table you should enter the ID of the collection (taken from the dbo_Collections table) and the classification id only for the SECONDARY LEVEL. If we have a collection with ID 898, here is how the dbo_ClassMapping table should be filled out for Chronological focus:

 

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	72
898	74
898	75
898	76
898	77
898	78

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Classifying by Geographical focus

 

If you refer to the Browse Collections by Geographical focus web page, you will see that most of the fields have both primary and secondary levels of classification. However, some don't. In the case of Asia and Western Europe, for example, we use only one level of classification. When there is no secondary level of classification, in the dbo_ClassMapping table you should enter the ID of the collection (taken from the dbo_Collections table) and the classification id for the PRIMARY LEVEL

 

• Example 1: The Geographical focus of the collection that has to be classified is Belarus. In the dbo_Classification table Belarus belongs to a primary level Eastern Europe. In the dbo_Collections this information should appear in the following way:

 

Geographical focus

Eastern Europe/Belarus

 

• In the dbo_Classification table the Class_id for Belarus is 90. If the collection ID (refer to the dbo_Collections table) is 898, the dbo_ClassMapping table has to be filled out as it follows:

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	90

 

• Example 2: The Geographical focus of a collection that has to be classified is China and Russia. China's primary level should be Asia. On the other hand, the dbo_Classification table does not use secondary levels for Asia. In this case, when filling out the dbo_ClassMapping table, we will use Class_id 88 which corresponds to Asia (refer to the dbo_Classification table). Russia has Class_id 109. The primary level of Russia is Russia/Soviet Union. If the collection ID is 898, the dbo_ClassMapping table has to be filled out as it follows:

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	88
898	109

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Classifying by Language

 

The process here is quite similar to the procedures described above. In the Language field all the primary levels have secondary levels as well. For more details, please refer to the Browse Collections by Language web-page.

 

• Example: We need to classify a collection with ID 898 which includes matherials in Slovenian, Czech and German. In the dbo_Classification table those languages have the following Class_id:

 

 

Class_id	name	parent_id
118	German	117
130	Czech	126
137	Slovenian	126

 

• The dbo_ClassMapping table has to be filled out as it follows:

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	137
898	130
898	118

 

 

The codes for the representation of names of languages (ISO 639-2) can be found here.

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Classifying by Original format

 

In the Browse Collections by Original format you can see that not all the primary levels in this category have corresponding secondary levels. Reminder: when there is no secondary level of classification, in the dbo_ClassMapping table you should enter the ID of the collection (taken from the dbo_Collections table) and the classification id for the PRIMARY LEVEL.

 

• Example: The description provided in the original format field in the dbo_Collections table is Music and Text. Music does not have secondary levels, but Text does. However, the description for the secondary levels is not provided in the dbo_Collections table. If the collection incorporates poetry and narrative, there will be 2 secondary levels of Text that should be taken in consideration: Verse with Class_id 182 in the dbo_Classification table and Narrative with Class_id 183. The Class_id for Music is 155.

If the collection ID is 898, the dbo_ClassMapping table should look like that:

Collection_ID	Class_id
898	155
898	182
898	183

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