Searching Media/Images

Discover Menu: Explore, Browse, Overview

Bring the mouse pointer over to Discover on the FITDIL Toolbar. A drop-down menu will appear and display three options to find images/media: Explore, Browse, and Overview.

Explore directs to the image search result page, displaying the thumbnails and titles of the resource. When you first open this page, all of the records from all FITDIL collections will be retrieved. You can then filter the result using the search filter boxes located at the right side of the page, and narrow down the number of records to retrieve relevant items for your search.
Browse allows you to access the lists of terms and phrases used in records. You can look into individual collections in FITDIL, and browse through fields (data criteria), such as Creator, Date, Title, etc.
Overview brings up the Collection Overview page that provides the information about the collection structure in FITDIL and the descriptions on individual collections.

Explore (Discover>Explore)

Click Explore from the drop-down menu (or simply click on Discover will bring you to the same page). It will retrieve all the media resources in all FITDIL collections (images, videos, documents, etc.). You can filter the result using the search filter boxes, and narrow down the number of records to retrieve relevant items for your search.

Search Functions on the Explore Page

By default, the page displays the image thumbnails sorted by title. The menu bar at the top is used to navigate the page showing: Number of hits, Display options, and Select/Deselect records. The search filter menu boxes at the right-hand column is used to narrow down the results and retrieve relevant images/media.

Tips on Keyword Search

Multiple word search - AND search

Enter multiple words in the search box (on the FITDIL Toolbar at the top or Filter menu Keyword box at the top of the right-hand column) to find records that match all of the terms.

For example, entering "black dress" will find records that contain both "black" and "dress" anywhere in the metadata of the records, not necessarily "black dress" as a phrase (Note that a phrase search is not available from the keyword search).

Multiple word search - OR search:

Enter "or" in between words to find records that match either one of the terms. For example, enter "black or dress." This search will return records that contain either "black" or "dress" in the metadata (It will return more results than "black dress" search).

Wild cards:

An asterisk will match any characters. For example, "paint*" will match painting, paintings or painter. "wom*n" will match woman or women (Note that a search term cannot start with an asterisk).

Using Search Filter Boxes (Facets)

The search filter boxes are located at the right-hand column on the Explore page. Click on each heading to open the filter box and see the available terms under the category (Collection, Creator, Date, etc.). To clear the search, click on Reset Search at the bottom of the column.

Select from the list and Enter Keyword(s)

Click on each heading to open the filter box and display the list of terms under the category (Collection, Creator, etc.).

Click on "more..." at the bottom in the box to show more terms, and scroll down to see the entire list.

Select a term from the list.

Go on to select more terms from other categories to further limit the search.

Keyword search:

If you enter keyword(s) in the Keywords box at the top of the filter area, your keyword is applied within the on-going search results.
If you enter keyword(s) on the FITDIL Toolbar Keyword box (at the top), the filter box search will be reset and the keyword is applied to all records in all FITDIL collections.

Select Multiple Terms under Same Heading

To select multiple terms from the same list, click the "or" icon next to the selected term. A new filter box with the same category will appear under the box.

Select another term from the list. Click "more..." if necessary.

In this instance, "Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890" has just been selected. Click on the "or" icon next to the selected term, and another Creator filter box will appear. You can then select another creator from the list.

For example, find and click "Gauguin," and...

This search results will include records that have both Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin under "Creator."

Exclude (Filter out) a Term

Hover the mouse pointer over the term that you want to exclude (filter out), and activate the "-" icon next to the term.

Click on the "-" icon. The search results exclude the selected term under the heading.

Filter Box Menu Headings and Metadata Field

Some of the filter box menu headings may represent multiple categories (fields) on each record. The name of the heading on the record page and that of the filter box menu may not always match. See below for examples of how headings on the record page in different FITDIL collections will appear in the filter box headings:

Creator: Creator, Designer (in Designer Files/Designer Slides collections), Student name (in Student work collections), Publication author (in Special Collections and College Archives collection), Firm (Designer Files/Slides collections), Director (FIT classes)

Date: Date, Creation Date, Year of exhibition, Academic semester, Exhibition date

Medium: Medium, Publication type, Materials

Subject: Genre, Packaging structure, Type of garment, Apparel category, Style, Culture, Category

Browse (Discover>Browse)

If you know what FITDIL collection you would like to browse in, Browse is the way to access a specific collection and look through the content by metadata. This function provides the option of searching terms by field, such as Creator, Date, Department, etc.

Browse Collections Page Navigation

Select the collection you are looking into from the Collecion drop-down menu, then select a field you are interested.

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