User Information for the Eastern North Carolina Digital History Exhibits

User Information

Frequently Asked Questions

1.	Is the Search tool the best way to find things in the Exhibits?
2.	Do I have to use frames to explore the Exhibits?
3.	Why are there two resolutions for the images in the Exhibit and what are these resolutions?
4.	Do I have to wait until images are fully loaded to use the transcription link above some images?
5.	Why are some documents available only as text with no accompanying image of the original?
6.	What are the elements of the bolded names of documents above the notes' area on document web pages?
7.	Are the "Notes"(near the top of the digital document pages) part of the text of the digital document?
8.	What is the purpose of the citation near the bottom of document pages?
9.	What is a Finding Aid?
10.	In documents that have been converted to text, why are some words repeated in brown with brackets?
11.	Why don't the thumbnails link to images?

Q1. What is the best way to explore things in the Exhibits?

A1. To accommodate individual preferences and needs, there are 3 ways to explore the Exhibits. Please read the descriptions below and select the way that best fits your needs and preferences.

Search : A Search link is always available in the left frame and is also available near the bottom of every Exhibits main frame. Search is useful if there are specific words or phrases for which you want to search. For example, if you are a maritime studies student and want to explore the mechanics of steamers, then perhaps you might search for the word “combustion,” or “engine” within the Steamers area of the Exhibit.
Navigation : Another way to navigate the Exhibits is by topics. To facilitate topic browsing, the Eastern North Carolina Digital History Exhibits are divided into 4 individual exhibits: Steamers, Tobacco, John Lawson and ECU Centennial. Each individual exhibit is divided into several categories of digitized items. When you click on a topic in the left frame, a list of categories is revealed under the individual exhibit name in the left frame, and you are taken to a main frame introducing that exhibit. If you then select a category in the left frame, you are taken to a main frame introducing the category and listing the digitized items available in the category. When you select an item to view from the list on a category introductory main frame, then near the top right of the item main frame you will also see a trail of links for the home pages for the category and individual exhibit.
Browse Table of Contents : A Browse link is always available in the left frame and is also available near the bottom of every Exhibits main frame. The Browse link displays a main frame listing all items digitized for the Exhibits, organized as a table of contents by individual exhibit and category.

Q2. Do I have to use frames to explore the Exhibit?

A2. No. The Exhibit provides a left frame to provide constant navigation tools for those whose browsers support frames. To accommodate users whose browsers do not support frames, all left frame links are provided in the main frame as well, mostly near the bottom of the main frame. Non-frames users may include those with older browsers and those who are visually impaired. If your browser does not support frames, you will only see the main frame.

Q3. Why are there two resolutions for the images in the Exhibits and what are these resolutions?

A3. Images give you a feel for what it would be like to see paper original manuscripts, books, photos, drawings, and text with special layouts. The Exhibits provides 72 dpi (dots per inch) and 300 dpi versions of images for these kinds of documents. An attempt has been made to display images in the same size as the paper original, except as noted below.

72 dpi images:
- are the first version you see of any image in the Exhibits.
- are designed to be relatively fast loading.
- are generally legible on your monitor.
- are legible enough to determine whether you want to spend more time waiting for a 300 dpi version of the image to load onto your computer via the Web.
- are generally not wider than 6 inches on your screen, to support non-scrolled viewing on monitors as small as 13 inches, while maintaining the left navigation frame. If the paper original is wider than 6 inches, then the screen display is smaller than the paper original.
300 dpi images:
- are accessed using the link under the image named “Higher resolution image. You can also double click any 72 dpi image in order to go to the 300 dpi image.
- will not support casual browsing without a high speed internet connection, (such as cable connection, or campus fiber optic connection). Note that with slower connections, including most modems, you may need to wait several minutes for a 300 dpi image to completely load onto your monitor.
- sometimes make better quality prints than 72 dpi images, because they contain more dots (however some simple images are as clear in prints from 72 dpi images as from 300 dpi images).
- are good for printing especially when you want a print that looks like a photocopy of the original because the 300 dpi images have no surrounding contextual information.
- reside alone on their web pages, you must use your browser's back button to go back to the Exhibits. If you close the 300 dpi image, your browser window will close.
- provide slightly larger screen dimensions and clarity than 72 dpi images for original paper documents wider than 6 inches.
- when printed are generally not wider than 8.5 inches, nor longer than 11 inches, to support printing to 8.5 x 11 inch paper on most American printers. If the paper original is larger than 8.5 x 11 inches, then the 300 dpi image has been reduced in width to accommodate 8.5x11 inch printing. One exception to this rule of thumb is the map of the Greenville tobacco warehouse district with a 17 x 11 inch paper original landscape layout. For map legibility and to accommodate many popular printers' lack of 11 x 17 printing capacity, the image of this map has been reduced to a 14x8.5 inch image in both 72 and 300 dpi versions. This means the map can be printed in landscape to legal size paper, and is not to small to read the detail on the original.

Q4. Do I have to wait until images are fully loaded to use the transcription link above some images?

A4. No. Image data is loaded onto your screen in three passes. When browsing, this allows you to have an idea of what the document looks like after the first pass (for example whether it is a photograph or a letter). You will not be able to see the details of the image until all three passes of data are loaded. When an image begins to load, the dimensions needed to display the image are reserved on that web page. This allows your screen to show all text below the image before the image makes it's first full pass at image data loading. This makes it possible for you to click on the link to the transcription immediately, without waiting for the image to finish loading. This is especially valuable if you are mainly interested in the transcribed content of a document, rather than in the look of the original. If you go to the transcription before the image finishes loading, you can scroll back up to the image when you want to examine the image further.

Q5. Why are some documents available only as text with no accompanying image of the original?

A5. If the original is text intensive and the layout is smooth flowing text (that is, the meaning is not significantly affected by the layout), then a purely digital text edition of the original is provided. An example of this kind of document is a newspaper article that does not include photos, drawings, or other non-text elements.

These new digital editions are full-text searchable, whereas an image of the original typesetting would not be full-text searchable. Another advantage of a digital text edition is that the text will flow into any size window you want to use without a need for scrolling. Control of text flow allows a researcher support for the use of multiple on-screen windows, such as a window for the Exhibits in a browser and another window for a word processor where research notes may be typed.

Digital editions of some documents in the Exhibits may combine text and photos. In the case of such new editions, we have inserted images of the photos or other graphic elements in the place closest to the reference to that item. This luxury was not always available in the original typesetting where sometimes a picture was on a page following the reference to the subject matter, due to paper layout constraints. Examples of these combined text and photo digital editions include:

a)newspaper articles with photos and other graphic elements.

b)Illustrated City of Greenville, a picture book with text.

Q6. What are the elements of the bolded names of documents above the notes' area on document web pages?

A6. The elements, if applicable to the individual document, are: author, title, serial, and date. Serials also have the place of publication displayed following the serial name. If, for example, there is no author, or if the item is not a serial, then those elements are not included in this area near the top of the web page.

Q7. Are the "Notes" (near the top of the digital document pages) part of the text of the digital document?

A7. No. The Notes are written by subject specialists to give you some context for a document, such as information about the author's credentials or about the timeframe of the original document. The digital document begins following the bold announcement of the format of the original (book, pamphlet, manuscript, etc.) and whether the digital version is presented as text, image or both.

Q8. What is the purpose of the citation near the bottom of document pages?

A8. The citation is provided to make it easy for researchers to gather the elements needed for referencing the document. The citation provided is for the paper version of the document. Citation formats differ according to their use (footnote, endnote, bibliography, etc.) and the style required by a publisher or teacher. You should check whether your publisher or instructor wants you to follow the Chicago Style Manual, or the APA style guidelines, or some other style guidelines. Use and style will determine the order in which the elements are presented and the punctuation you will need to use.

You may have to re-order the citation elements (like author’s first and last name, etc.) and change the punctuation for citations you copy from this Exhibit. A popular style guide for citing the digital version of a document is The Columbia Guide to Online Style . To reference a digital document, this style guide suggests that you add (to the end of the original paper version citation) the URL where you read the document and the date (day month year in parenthesis) that you accessed the digital document.

Q9. What is a Collection Guide?

A9. A collection guide describes the special collection to which a document belongs at a library. Looking at a collection guide can tell you more details about the collection, so that you can determine if you would like to visit the library to see more documents in that collection. A collection guide link is located near the bottom of some document pages. If there is no collectio guide link after the Call Number near the bottom of the document web page, then this document does not belong to a special collection in Joyner Library at East Carolina University. Instead the document may be housed in the General Stacks, in the North Carolina Collection, in which case there will be a link to the catalog record. The place where the original is housed is displayed between the Citation and Call Number as Location. You may want to browse Joyner Library’s East Carolina Manuscript Collection - Collection Guides to discover other manuscripts that may assist your research.

Q10. In documents that have been converted to text, why are some words repeated in brown with brackets?

A10. The brown words in brackets assist you in reading text documents by providing modern spelling, punctuation, corrected original typographical errors, and spelling out abbreviations. This makes it possible for you to confirm that the digitizers of materials for the Exhibits did not introduce any typing errors that you may find in the digitized text shown in black. It also aids your ease of reading, in case it is not obvious to you what archaically spelled word is in today's spelling. The brackets indicate information that has been added by the proofreaders of the digitized text.

An exception to this ease-of-reading support procedure is found in text written in the early eighteenth century. English spelling has changed so much since then that if modernizations were in brackets behind original spellings, then sometimes almost every word would have a brown bracketed modernization. To avoid this awkwardness in reading, text from this period is provided in two versions: original and modernized. The modernized is available below the original.

Q11. Why don't the thumbnails link to images?

A11. The thumbnails that you see beside the category names do not link to a larger image of that thumbnail. They are there as a representation of just one of the items in that particular category.

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Page Updated 2 January 2003