HELP

• Troubleshooting Four Common Problems
  • Images are not displaying
  • Not finding images believed to be held by the Prints & Photographs Division
  • Need to find out how to order copies of items found through the catalog
  • Need permission to use an image found in the catalog
• Searching Concepts and Tips
• Scope of Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
• How Prints & Photographs Online Catalog Relates to Other LC Search Systems (American Memory, LOCIS, etc.)
• Choosing How Much to Search At Once
• Choosing a Type of Search
  • Searching All Text of Catalog Records
  • Searching Particular Parts of Catalog Records
  • Choosing from Lists of Terms Used in Catalog Records
• Record/Image Displays
  • Sequence in which multiple records display
  • When do digital images display?
• Technical Notes on Digital Images
• How to Order Copies of Items

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  Troubleshooting Four Common Problems

  Images are not displaying-- If a message at the top of the catalog record says "No digital image available," no image will display.
  • Not all catalog records in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog are accompanied by images.
  • In cases where the rights to the image have not been evaluated, only a thumbnail (gif) image will be available to searchers outside the Library of Congress, even though the message says that you can "Click on picture for larger image, full item, or more versions."
  • The descriptions of each of the collections/categories that can be searched in the catalog includes information regarding whether and what kind of images will display inside and outside the Library of Congress.
  • If the collection/category listing indicates that images should be displaying at your location, you may want to check to see whether graphics have been turned off on your browser. If a "broken" graphic appears, there may be a problem with the link to the image or a temporary server problem.
  For further information, see the section of this document entitled When do digital images display?

  Not finding images believed to be held by the Prints & Photographs Division-- Not all of the holdings of the Prints & Photographs Division are represented by online catalog records. Some popular images cataloged years ago are so far only accessible through manual files in the Prints & Photographs Reading Room. If you have correctly entered various search terms, searching broadly across all collections/categories and in all the text of the records, and still have not found the material you are seeking, this may be the explanation. For further information, see the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog introductory page and the section of this document entitled Scope of Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.

  Need to find out how to order copies of material found through the catalog-- Copies of most items in the catalog can be ordered from the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service by mail or fax. See the section of this document entitled How to Order Copies of Items.

  Need permission to use an image found through the catalog--The Library of Congress can neither grant nor deny permission use images, as it does not own the rights to most images in its holdings. For information on the permissions policy and rights pertaining to images, see Copyright and Other Restrictions...: Sources of Information.

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  Searching Concepts and Tips

  What happens during your search?
  • The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog gives you the option of searching all online records at once or confining your search to a particular collection or category.
  • Once you select the pool of records to search, the search screen allows you to enter one or more terms and to set options about how those terms will be searched:
    • You can select to: match all of the words (like a boolean AND), match the words as a phrase, or match any of the words (like a boolean OR). The default is set to match all of the words.
    • You can select to search the terms exactly as entered or to include variants, such as plurals.
    • You can determine how many records to retrieve for your search. The default is 500. The maximum is 5,000.
  • The system will display results. If you selected to search "match all of these words" or "match any of these words," the records will be grouped in categories, according to how closely the content of the record matched the terms you entered.
  • You can select from the list of results by clicking on any "hot linked" title that looks of interest. A full record and, sometimes, a digital image will then display.
  • It is possible to move quickly through a large result set by clicking on the "page" numbers that appear, in increments, at the top of long displays. There are approximately 20 records per "page."
  • You can start a new search in the collection or category you have chosen by clicking on "NEW SEARCH." You can return to the list of collections/categories by clicking on "START OVER."

  Search Tips:

  • Use either capital or lowercase letters. Case does not affect the results of your search.
  • Common words (e.g., AND, THE) and most marks of punctuation will not be considered in the search.
  • Enter the words in the order in which they would most likely appear in the text. The order of the terms does not affect which records appear in the search results, but it does determine which records will display first (relevancy ranking).
  • To make searching more precise, select "Match this exact phrase" or "Match all of these words" and select "Search for words exactly as entered" under the search term form. If, on the other hand, you want the system to generalize your search, select "Match any of these words" and tell the system to include singulars, plurals, and words with the same "stem," by selecting "Search for variants of search words."
  • When you are viewing a record, you can click on any "hot linked" terms (e.g., those listed under SUBJECTS or CREATOR) to retrieve a list of other records with similar terms.

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  Choosing How Much to Search At Once

  • Search ALL Categories/Collections--This option allows you to cast the widest net possible in the online catalog. It may be best to try this option first, since materials of a particular medium or having a particular characteristic can turn up unexpectedly in many collections.
  • Search Guide Records (Collection Overviews)--This option allows you to confine your searching to broad descriptions of major collections in the Prints and Photographs Division. This may help you identify a large group of materials that is particularly relevant to your interests. Sometimes the contents of a particular collection identified in this way can be further searched in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog. Sometimes there are no online catalog records for items in the collection, in which case you will need to get in touch with the Prints & Photographs Division Reading Room staff for further information.
  • Search records from ONE Collection--This option allows you to concentrate your searching within one collection. It can be useful when you have identified one collection of particular interest to you or when searching ALL collections at once is retrieving more than you want, and you wish to narrow down the search.
  • Number of records to return--On each search screen, you can set the number of records you wish the system to retrieve. The default is 500 records. The maximum is 5,000 records.

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  Scope Of Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

  The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog provides access to a rich cross-section of the Prints & Photographs Division's holdings and is growing daily, but not all of the holdings are represented in the online catalog. The catalog includes:

• Recently created or converted catalog records--Describes over 205,000 individual items plus summary descriptions covering over 2.5 million other images.
• Digital images for a portion of the holdings--Digital images do not appear with all catalog records. Many items have not yet been digitized. Some digitized items display only as thumbnails (gifs) to searchers outside the Library of Congress because of rights considerations.
• Various types of records and data--The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog includes a variety of types of records, depending upon the nature of the materials and the project under which computer records were made. The records vary in the kinds of information they include. Among the types of records you may see in the catalog are:
  • Guide Record--Describes an entire collection, outlining its scope, provenance, and the finding tools that provide access to images (digitized or non-digitized) in the collection.
  • Group Record--Describes a group of images that are related, usually by source or subject matter. Various kinds of call number designations may be used to designate a group of images: LOT, LOOK - Job, ADE - UNIT. Most groups of images are not available in digital form and must be viewed onsite by submitting a call slip. Some have additional finding aids that provide further description of images in the group.
  • Item Record--Describes an individual item, sometimes accompanied by a digital image. In some cases, every item in a collection has been described with an item record. In other cases, selected item records have been created, often for images for which copy negatives or transparencies have recently been made. Item records can vary in the amount of information supplied; some include unconfirmed information and non-standard subject headings.
  • Supplementary Textual Information--Some collections have associated background information, bibliographies, and technical notes that may be viewed by clicking on the "About this Collection" button.

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  How Prints & Photographs Online Catalog Relates To Other LC Search Systems

  • American Memory--Some records and images found in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog are also represented in American Memory, a program to make historical materials in a variety of media available to the public via Internet. Records and images for Selected Civil War Photographs, the Daguerreotype Collection, the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, and several other collections are available in both search systems. Not all of the Prints & Photographs Divisions cataloged holdings, however, fit into the scope of the American Memory effort and so not all are represented there. On the other hand, American Memory displays images from other units of the Library of Congress, as well as from other institutions, that are not included in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
  • Library of Congress Online Catalog--Some of the records in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (about 20%) can also be found in the Library of Congress Online Catalog. Digital images that accompany catalog records will generally not display in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, however. Since some records are entered directly into the Library of Congress Online Catalog, it provides the most up-to-date information about certain pools of records (Guide records, High Demand item and group records, some Architecture, Design and Engineering records).
  • Z39.50 Search ("Word Search")--Some of the records in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog can also be found in the Z39.50 search system. Most records that have accompanying digital images will not be found through the Z39.50 search system, however.

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  Choosing a Type of Search

  There are three ways to search data in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog: text search, search particular parts of the catalog record, and choose from lists of terms used in catalog records.
  • Searching All Text of Catalog Records--Searches all text in the catalog records--does not search number fields or date fields. Choose this type of search when you:
    • do not know in which fields your search words are likely to occur
    • want to combine terms that may appear in different fields (e.g., a photographer's name and a subject)
    • want to search terms that appear in NOTE fields
    • want to do a search in which recall (quantity of retrieved records) is more important than precision (relevance of retrieved records). In other words, you want to conduct an exhaustive search, rather than a highly specific one
    • want to develop a quick sample search.
    Since most researchers will want to start their searching here, the system usually defaults to this search screen. Note:This search method can be further refined and expanded by making selections on the search screen. See the section on "Searching Concepts and Tips."

  • Searching Particular Parts Of the Catalog Records--Choose this type of search when you:
    • know the fields in which your search words are likely to occur.
    • want to search an identification number (number fields are not included in the Text Search)
    • want to do a search in which precision (relevance of retrieved records) is more important than recall (quantity of retrieved records). In other words, you want to conduct a highly specific search, rather than an exhaustive one.

      The parts of the catalog records that can be searched are:

      • Subjects--This will search fields labled SUBJECTS, TOPICS, and FORMAT. Many of the subject headings used in Prints & Photographs Online Catalog records are drawn from two thesauri maintained by the division: Thesaurus for Graphic Materials I: Subject Terms and Thesaurus for Graphic Materials II: Genre and Physical Characteristic Terms. In some collections (e.g., American Political Prints) that do not use subject headings from these thesauri, the subject terms that have been applied appear under the TOPICS label.
      • Creators and other Associated Names--Includes names of photographers, artists, architects, builders, etc., associated with the image or the building or art work it depicts. Also sometimes includes names of donors and copyright holders. Does not include names of people depicted. Since some names are only recorded in NOTE fields, names not found through this search may be found through a Text search.
      • Titles--Many types of images do not have established titles; catalogers sometimes have to devise titles for items and groups.
      • Numbers--Includes reproduction numbers (which usually begin with LC-, call numbers (which can include words as well as numbers), copyright registration numbers, and record identification numbers. In some cases, separate elements of the number can be searched.

    Additional information about fields used in the catalog records and cataloging conventions can be found in "About This Collection" information available with some collections.
    Note:This search method can be further refined and expanded by making selections on the search screen. See the section on "Searching Concepts and Tips."

  • Choose from a list of terms (e.g., subjects, creators/associated names, places) used in the catalog records--This will show you all of the terms that were included in a particular field or set of fields in the catalog records for the set of records you are searching. Choose this option when you:
    • aren't sure what terms may have been used for the images you are seeking
    • aren't sure how a particular name was spelled in the catalog records
    • want to get a sense of the array of subjects/creators/places covered by a particular collection
    • don't feel like typing much.

    NOTE: This option is not available in the ALL Collections/Categories search (there are too many terms to list). Collections may vary in the lists that are made available. For example, some geographically oriented collections include lists of places cited under the state or (if non-U.S.) country; collections not strongly oriented towards geography simply include geographic terms in the Subjects list, with places in the U.S cited under "United States--." Since selecting from the list of terms is the equivalent of entering a search with those terms, you may get search results that do not exactly match the terms you clicked on.

Record/Image Displays

• Sequence in which multiple records display--The system searches for the number of records you selected to retrieve (the default is 500 records, the maximum is 5,000). Records are displayed according how closely their content matched the terms you entered. If you elected to "match all of these words" or "match any of these words," the results will be displayed in sets:
  • Records that matched the terms exactly (sometimes, because certain words are ignored, the system will list something as an "exact" match when it does not, in fact, exactly match the terms you entered).
  • Records that include all the terms, but not necessarily near each other.
  • Records that include one or more of the terms entered (displayed only when "match any of these words" was selected).
  Within each of these three categories, the sequence of records may be somewhat random. The records are not sorted alphabetically by title, for instance. NOTE: It is possible to move quickly through a large result set by clicking on the "page" numbers that appear, in increments, at the top of the display. There are approximately 20 records per "page."

• When do digital images display?
  Digital images display with the full catalog record, when the image has been digitized. In cases where the rights to the image have not been evaluated, only a thumbnail will be available to searchers outside the Library of Congress, even though the message on the screen says, "Click on picture for larger image, full item, or more versions."
  • Digital images are being created continuously as part of the Prints & Photographs Division's preservation efforts and its participation in Library of Congress digital library efforts. Some materials, however, have not so far been included in these efforts.
  • The starting page of the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, which lists the collections available for searching, provides information on whether or not images will display and whether they will display only as thumbnails to those searching outside the Library of Congress.
  • When no digital image is available to the searcher, the record will include the message "No digital image available."

Technical Notes On Digital Images

• Thumbnail (gif) images--The small images that appear with catalog records are in GIF format. The resolution is generally about 150x150 pixels.
• Larger Reference (JPEG) images--The resolution of these images varies from collection to collection. Details about image resolution for images in particular collections is given in the "About This Collection" information, when this is available. General resolution levels are suitable for ready reference rather than for supplying a facsimile reproduction.
• Largest Archival (TIFF) images--The resolution of these images varies from collection to collection. Details about image resolution for images in particular collections is given in the "About This Collection" information, when this is available. These images do not display directly in web browsers. They are displayed via special "viewers." Information on viewing images is available on the Library of Congress American Memory site.

How to Order Copies of Items

• If the "Reproduction #" field is filled in, note down the letters and numbers that appear there and the information regarding what the image will be reproduced from that is mentioned in parentheses (e.g. "b&w; film copy neg.").

• If the "Reproduction #" field only contains dashes on is not present in the record, take down the letters and numbers that appear in the Call # field. (The original will have to be photographed. The item may need to be retrieved before you place your order.)

• Include a brief caption for the item.

• Orders are accepted by mail and by fax (no ordering facility has so far been implemented via email or World Wide Web). The Photoduplication Service estimates that it takes 3-6 weeks to complete an order.

NOTE: The Library of Congress can neither grant nor deny permission to use images. If you are planning to publish or exhibit images obtained from the Library of Congress, you may wish to consult the document, " Copyright and Other Restrictions Which Apply to the Publication and Other Forms of Distribution of Images: Sources of Information", available from the Prints & Photographs Reading Room Home Page.

Library of Congress
(09/29/99)