|
Home: DESIGN GUIDES
For Undergrads
Where Things are Located
Basic Searching
Finding Journal Articles
For Grad Students
The Process
Advanced Searching
Databases
ARTstor Guides
An Overview of ARTstor
Instructor-level Access
Web Guides
NC Art and Design Sites
Image Sites
Web Resources for Design
Design Library Home
|
An Overview of ARTstor
Adapted by Barbara Brenny from "Getting Started With ARTstor," by Jenni Rodda, New York University
and from "ARTstor Training Part III: Instructor Features"
1) Connecting to ARTstor
Connect to ARTstor from any computer within the NCSU network or registered through
the NCSU Libraries proxy, at www.artstor.org. The ARTstor home page has a button along the right
frame margin marked "search and browse for images". Click there. ARTstor will then load
a piece of client software onto whatever computer you are using; this will take anywhere
from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the speed of your connection.
(If the client software cannot load, you will get an error message; try using another
browser interface. Make sure your computer is Java-enabled, and that pop-ups are
allowed from the ARTstor site. That solves the two most common problems with
connecting to ARTstor.) The next screen you will see is the main access page for
the database. ARTstor works with PC’s, through either Netscape or Internet Explorer,
and with Macs, through either Internet Explorer or Safari. (If you are using a Mac,
you must use OSX.3, the "Panther" version of the operating system, or higher.)
You should also be aware that ARTstor’s image files can be rather large; how
quickly they load for you depends on the speed of your connection and the traffic
on ARTstor’s servers during your visit.
2) Register with ARTstor
Register with ARTstor using your email address. You DO have to initially register
from an NCSU-networked computer. If you don’t register, you’ll only be allowed to
browse the images. In the upper right corner of the main access page, there is
a register/log-on box. Click "need to register?" then follow the directions
in the dialog box. ARTStor will ask you to create a password. The next
time you visit ARTstor (after registering), click the “log on” button,
and follow the directions in the resulting dialog box. A note on remote
(e.g., off-campus) access: once you have registered as a user, ARTstor
allows you remote access for 120 days, after which you will need to re-authenticate
yourself to their servers, from an NCSU-networked computer. Registering will give you
the ability to do the following:
a. Create image groups
b. Annotate images
c. Register for access to shared folders
d. Collaborate with instructors and colleagues online
e. Create presentations
f. Create links to ARTstor images and image groups for access
through course reserves and other websites
3) Browsing and Searching in ARTstor
Information about each of ARTstor’s component collections can be found by clicking on the name
of the collection, from the main access page. You can start searching immediately using
the keyword search box at the top of the page. Note that there is a drop-down menu just
below the keyword search box—you need to tell the database which collection you want to
search (or that you want to search all collections simultaneously), before clicking the
"search" button. Be careful what you ask for: searching with a general term
(like "painting")
may bring up more information than you can browse easily. If your search returns more than
300 hits, a dialog box will appear asking if you wish to refine your search, or whether you
want to see everything that matches the criteria you entered. Another option is to perform
an advanced search.
4) Search Results
Once you have initiated a search, a virtual lightbox of images will appear.
Clicking on the caption below each image brings up whatever textual
information ARTstor has on file; double-clicking on the image itself enlarges the image,
and makes it possible to zoom, pan, and rotate the image.
In any screen in which images appear, you can enlarge (zoom, pan, rotate) and pull up
any information ARTstor has about that image. Click on an image, and it will enlarge
(half the screen will grey out, and you may see a large "loading image please wait"
message; how long this takes depends on the size of the image file and the speed of your
network connection). Once the enlarged image is on your screen, there will be two rows
of icons at the bottom of the new window. Click the "plus" sign to zoom in, the
"minus" sign to zoom out, and the icon of the small square to return the image
to its original size and position.
The cursor directional arrow keys allow you to pan through
an enlarged image (which you can also do by clicking, holding the button down,
and moving the cursor icon around the image). When an image has been enlarged,
a slide-sized reference image appears in the bottom right corner of the new window.
Zooming in creates a red outline on the reference image; dragging that red outline
within the reference image allows you to shift the area of the image being enlarged.
The right-most icon in the upper row of the image tool bar is a circular arrow; clicking
here allows you to rotate the selected image in any direction (although the orientation
of the thumbnail reference image does not change). The zoom and pan features continue to
function, even if the image has been rotated. (N.B.: At this time, image rotation
is a function that is only available within the ARTstor database. A downloaded image
reverts to its original orientation. This is true when downloading to the OIV as well.)
In the lower row of icons, clicking the printer icon will allow you to print out a
low-resolution version of the image, and all its related descriptive text. Click the
"full screen" icon to make the image as large as possible
(or, conversely, to return it to its original size). Click the "list" icon
to see the titles of every image in your image group—click on a title in the list,
and that image enlarges on the screen. Click the "save" icon,
and ARTstor will allow you to download a low-resolution version of
the image (about 400 pixels on the long side, big enough for a paper
but not suitable for much else) to your hard drive, stick drive, CD, or other portable
media. At the lower right edge of the image toolbar are two text buttons;
one allows you to hide the tombstone caption in the lower left.
The other takes you to ARTstor’s error report form.
If you find an error, click there, and follow the directions
on the resulting screen. Your comments on what needs to be fixed will go right to ARTstor.
In the lightbox screen, clicking on the caption
to any image pulls up its related description. Descriptive
information in ARTstor varies widely; you will find that the "Image Gallery"
(drawn originally from the slide library at the University of California/San Diego)
has the most cursory textual information, and images of the most varied quality.
The images in the "Illustrated Bartsch," in contrast, are frequently well-cataloged,
with lengthy descriptions and interpretations in addition to basic source data.
Across the top of the data screen (reached by clicking on the caption to a thumbnail)
are several tabs. The second tab, "image properties," gives you the
technical specifications of the image—including its perpetual URL, which can be
cut-and-pasted into another document if you need it. The third tab, "personal notes,"
allows you to annotate for yourself any image you have selected.
Those personal notes are available and visible only to you.
If you have arranged for instructor-level privileges, a fourth tab,
labeled "instructors notes," will appear. Notes you write under
the "instructors notes" tab are available for general viewing by your students
("personal notes" are not). To arrange for instructor level
privileges within NCSU’s ARTstor license,
contact Tim Mori,
Karen DeWitt or Barbara Brenny
and one of them can provide you
with the authorization code and password.
5) Building Image Groups
Image groups allow you to work with a selection of images you set aside for yourself,
name in a way that is meaningful to you, place in any order you like,
and annotate in any way you wish. Image groups can also be downloaded
in full through ARTstor’s proprietary software, the "Offline Image Viewer"
(OIV 2.5 after this), for presentation purposes (more about this later).
If you wish to select an image for separate use, click on its thumbnail.
The frame will turn yellow (to unselect, click again, and the frame returns to neutral).
You may select as many images at a time as you wish, on as many pages as you wish.
When you have selected the images you want to save, go to the button at the top
of the lightbox screen labeled "Image Groups". Within the drop-down menu
is the choice "Save selected images into group." Click there.
Another dialog box appears, asking you to create a folder, and a group title.
You can append, overwrite, or create a new group, and you can ask ARTstor
to immediately open the group in a separate window. Don’t forget to click "SAVE"
when you’re done!
Once you have created an image group, it "lives" on ARTstor’s servers, in a partition
accessible only by you. The group will stay intact until you change or
delete it (or until NCSU changes its license with ARTstor, or you no longer have
access to an NCSU-networked computer).
Don’t hesitate to use the "help" tab! ARTstor has a great deal of detailed
information available for reference and printout as needed. "Help" is accessible from
any screen within ARTstor.
6) Using the Off-line Image Viewer (OIV 2.5)
The OIV 2.5 is a proprietary software package that makes it possible to download ARTstor’s
large image files (and their associated functionality) locally, then to add images from other
sources (such as the Design Library Image Collection) and make presentations. It is similar
to PowerPoint, but less complicated and easier to use. The OIV can be downloaded to any
computer. The OIV is completely portable.
PLEASE NOTE: Before downloading images from ARTstor into the OIV, make whatever annotations
you think you will need in the "personal notes" screen. "Personal notes"
download with the image, but you CANNOT change them once the image has been downloaded to
your own computer. Also, in the current version of the OIV, image rotation is NOT possible.
You can rotate images within ARTstor’s networked environment, but not in
the stand-alone OIV presentation environment.
To download the OIV to your personal computer: after registering as an ARTstor user,
go to the "Tools" button at the top of the screen. Click "Off-line image
viewer download,"
and follow the on-screen directions. Make sure you download the most recent version of
the software (2.5), and that the version you download is compatible with the computer
you are using. The downloading instructions are very clear and easy to follow, but there
are some specific systems requirements; the OIV does not work with all operating systems
of all computers.
Once the OIV is installed on your computer, open the program. Your screen will be divided
into three windows (the "Image Palette," "Slide Sorter," and "Slide Editor"), and a “Getting Started”
dialog box, giving you several download options, will appear.
If you select "Create a presentation using ARTstor images," you will be prompted to
authenticate yourself to ARTstor (e.g., log in), then to tell ARTstor which of your
image groups you want to download. The images will download in the order in which you
left them in your on-line image group, directly to your personal computer, into
the "Image Palette" window, along with all their attendant data; any "personal notes"”
you have made will also download. Please remember that you must assemble images into a
group prior to downloading them into the OIV; the OIV does not give you direct access to
the full ARTstor database.
Once an image group has been downloaded to your own computer, you can rearrange the images,
add images from other sources, and present images either as a PowerPoint-like slide show
or as an "Image Palette" slide show. To add images from other sources, use the icon shaped
like two small squares in the image palette area or go to "Insert" and select "Local Images."
Tell the OIV where the images are located that you want to add to your image group, and they
will appear on the “Image Palette” window, appended to the end of the open group.
The "Image Palette" window allows you to order images any way you like;
select an image (its frame will turn blue), then drag and drop it wherever you want it.
If you want to delete an image, select it (its frame will turn blue), go to the
"Edit" menu, then choose the "Remove slide." NB: If you delete an ARTstor image, and want
it back, you will need to return to ARTstor to download it again. To annotate your own
images (NOT the images you download from ARTstor), select an image (its frame will turn blue),
then right click (in a PC interface). Use the "Edit image data" option in the right click menu.
Depending on how you want to use the images you have assembled, you can use the OIV in two
completely different ways. The biggest advantage to using the “Image Palette” slide show
is that the screen can be split either vertically or horizontally, and zooming and panning
features are available in both halves of the screen. ARTstor’s considerable image data can
also be called up, in either half of the screen, and the full slide show, arranged as you
last saved it in the image palette, can be referenced in either section of the screen. In
the upper left of the "Image Palette" toolbar is a small slide icon with a green triangle
on it; click there to preview your slide show.
There is also the "Slide Sorter/Editor" slide show, which works very much like PowerPoint.
This part of the software works in conjunction with the "Image Palette."
Images are held on the "Image Palette," then dragged and dropped into the
"Slide Editor," which in turn gives you access to a variety of pre-set slide templates
that make constructing a presentation quick and easy.
In both the "Slide Sorter" and "Slide Editor" window toolbars, there is an icon of a slide
with a plus (+) sign on it. This is the "Add Slide" button.
Clicking the "Add Slide" button brings up the OIV’s pre-set slide
template menu. Pick the slide format you need—blank screen, text only
screen, 1, 2, 3, or 4 images, with or without text, with or without the
zoom and pan features (these templates have a magnifying glass superimposed
on the template mosaic). Selecting a template and clicking "OK" puts that
template into the "Slide Editor." You can then drag and drop any image
from the "Image Palette" into any part of the template in the "Slide Editor."
Dragging and dropping an image into a text box transfers the text about that
image into the slide template; text can then be added or edited, or removed
completely. Finished slides show in the left frame "Slide Sorter" window,
just as they do in PowerPoint. Slides can be re-arranged (drag and drop),
deleted, or added, at any point in the sequence of your presentation, in the
"Slide Sorter" window. Deleting images from the "Slide Sorter"
or "Slide Editor"
windows does NOT delete them from the "Image Palette," but deleting an image
from the "Image Palette" removes that image from all three windows.
Clicking on the slide with the green triangle ("view the current presentation")
takes you directly to presentation mode. The first screen gives you a "cheat sheet"
of keyboard commands, the most important of which are the spacebar (moves forward one
full slide at a time), spacebar-shift (moves back one full slide at a time), and so on.
When you have completed editing your slide show, it can be saved to a flash or jump drive,
to a CD, to your personal hard drive; then uploaded to any of the classroom computers
when you wish to make your presentation. It will remain as last saved until
you open it again, and you will NOT need to log on to ARTstor to open it
(unless you want to add more ARTstor images, of course). The slide show is
saved in .prs format. You CANNOT open the file in PowerPoint—ARTstor’s high
resolution images are encrypted and can only be used in the OIV. If you are going
to take the OIV on the road, it is a good idea to take the software with you
(unless the institution where you are giving your talk is an ARTstor subscriber,
at which point they should already have the software available). Remember
when uploading the OIV that the computer you’re using it on must be Java enabled,
and that the pop-up blocker must be turned off if you think you will need to
log on to ARTstor directly.
More information about using the OIV including a glossary of keyboard shortcuts,
can be found under the "help" button within the OIV.
Librarian Contact Information
|
