Creating and managing Islandora and Solr collections

Page Table of Contents

• Smith College collections hierarchy and PIDs
  • Collections hierarchy
  • Collection identifiers
• Create an Islandora collection
• Manage an Islandora collection
• Update a Solr collection view
• Delete an Islandora collection

Smith College collections hierarchy and PIDs

A collection PID is composed of a namespace and an identifier. Each college has an official namespace:

Hampshire - hampshire:

Mount Holyoke - mtholyoke:

Smith - smith:

These namespaces will be prepended to all PIDS for objects/collections from each respective institution.

The second half of a PID is an identifier. At each institution there are three levels of collection: the top level is a repository or parent collection; the second level is a child collection, or at Smith College, a repository’s unit; and the third level, which applies only to Smith College, is a child collection. Each of these repositories, units, and collections have been assigned an identifier (either a shortname or acronym). The PID is comprised of two identifiers, an acronym/shortname of a collection and the acronym/shortname of its immediate parent collection. These two identifiers are separated by a double dash (--). Using this convention, a second-level collection would have an identifier formatted as such:

namespace: parent first-level collection--child second-level collection

A third-level collection, following the same convention, would be formatted similarly:

namespace: parent second-level collection--child third-level collection

Examples of Smith PIDs may be found below, under the collection identifiers section below.

Collections hierarchy

Smith College Collections

    |___Unique collection
            |___Object listing
    |___Unique collection
            |___Object listing

Smith College Libraries

    |___Collection
            |___Object listing

Smith College Special Collections

    |___College Archives
            |___Collection 1
                    |___Object listing
            |___Collection 2
                    |___Object listing

    |___Mortimer Rare Book Room
            |___Collection 1
                    |___Object listing
            |___Collection 2
                    |___Object listing
            |___Rare Books
                    |___Object listing

    |___Sophia Smith Collection
            |___Collection 1
                    |___Object listing
            |___Collection 2
                    |___Object listing

Collection identifiers

Top level

Collection name	Identifier	PID example
Smith College Collections	sc	smith:sc
Smith College Libraries	scl	smith:scl
Smith College Special Collections	scsc	smith:scsc

Second level

Collection name	Identifier	PID example
Smith College Archives	sca	smith:scsc--sca
Mortimer Rare Book Collection	mrbc	smith:scsc--mrbc
Sophia Smith Collection	ssc	smith:scsc--ssc

(For Smith College and Smith College Libraries' collections, PIDs are to be determined.)

Third level

All manuscript collections and records will use their local manuscript numbers as identifiers. Examples are given in the table below.

Collection name	Identifier	PID example
Helle collection of Plath family photographs	MS 273	smith:mrbc--ms0273
William Allan Neilson Personal Papers	MS 0082	smith:sca--ms0082
Nkenge Toure papers	MS 563	smith:ssc--ms0563
MRBC book: assign brief title no more than 10 characters	teatro	smith:mrbc--teatro

Create an Islandora collection

[Description of Islandora collection here.]

1. On either the Compass PROD or STAGE environment, log into Compass using your Shibboleth account.

• Note: STAGE is most beneficial for testing ingest and ensuring, for example, that there are no errors in the objects’ affiliated metadata that would affect its accessibility on Compass. For those at MHC and Smith, to work in STAGE, you must first log onto the Hampshire VPN.

2. Scroll to the footer menu, and select Islandora Repository. Once selected, you should be taken to the following URL: https://compass-stage.fivecolleges.edu/object/islandora:root (if on STAGE) or https://compass.fivecolleges.edu/object/islandora:root (if on PROD).

3. Choose a top-level collection from the silver folder icons. At this level, the collections correspond with the partner institution. For Smith, select Smith College, the URL for which will end with smith:root.

4. Continue to drill down into the Smith Special Collections folder and the specific Special Collections unit folder, within which you would like to add a child collection. Children collections represent collections and record groups managed by Special Collections, i.e. Katsi Cook papers, Record Group 80.02. Undergraduates. (Note: Individual books and codices may live within the SC units' folders as objects or a collection designated as "rare books", etc. may be created.)

5. Once in the folder, select the Manage tab, underneath the navigation breadcrumbs. This will take you to the backend management dashboard.

6. Select Add an Object to this Collection.

7. On the first page of the object creation process, use the following guidelines:
   • Auto-Create Solr Collection: Check the box.
   • Collection PID: Enter the unique collection persistent identifier for the collection, as defined in the Collection Identifiers section above.
   • Inherit collection policy?: Check the box.
   • Inherit XACML policy from: Select the top-level collection from which this new collection will inherit a XACML policy. Once completed, select Next.

8. Unless you are importing MARCxml, skip this page, just click Next:

9. On the following page, enter the collection's title. Enter the title as it appears in the finding aid (ArchivesSpae) or catalog record.

10. Select Ingest at the bottom of the page.

11. Once ingested, you will be taken to the collection's Islandora homepage.

Manage an Islandora collection

After creating a collection, staff will have to update the collection policy, in order to assign allowable content models for a collection.

1. Scroll to the footer menu, and select Islandora Repository. Drill down to find and select the Islandora collection that you wish to manage.

2. Once in the folder, select the Manage tab, underneath the navigation breadcrumbs. This will take you to the backend management dashboard. Perform management activities, as is necessary.

To add Content Models:

• Select Collection
• Under Manage collection policy, check the desired content models
• Click Update Collection policy See Content Models section for more information.

Staff may also use this Manage sections to delete objects in a collection (see below); share or migrate members from one collection to another; etc.

Update a Solr collection view

The Solr view of a collection is the collection landing page that users see on the public side of Compass. It provides information about a collection, as well as provides a means to browse digital collection materials.

During the process to create an Islandora collection, the Auto-Create Solr Collection field was checked. By checking this box, a basic Solr collection was created. Staff will need to update the Solr collection with additional metadata and publish it to the public front end.

(Note: if a Solr page was not created you can do it now by clicking Content > Add content > Islandora Solr Content. Enter the exact collection name and complete the remaining metadata as shown below.)

1. While logged into Compass, select Content on the Islandora admin panel.

2. On the content page, find the collection you had just created. Select Edit under the Operations column of the collection's row.

3. Select and enter data ONLY in the following fields:

Field	Description	Example
Participating institution	Check the Smith College box.
Collection summary	Enter an abstract for the collection. This should be pulled from the collection's finding aid.	This sub-record group is comprised of materials about and created by Smith College undergraduate students and includes photographs, letters, memorabilia, scrapbooks, journals, notes, biographical information, as well as class records related to activities and events, such as commencement and reunion.
Finding aid	Enter the title of the finding aid.	Finding aid for the Katsi Cook papers
URL	Enter the URL to the finding aid.	http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss432_main.html
Call to Action	Enter the following statement:	Collections in Compass are comprised of digitized or born-digital materials and, therefore, may not represent the whole of a collection. If you are interested in materials that may not yet be digitized or made available on Compass, check out the finding aid or contact us.
Button	Add Title: "Contact us" and URL: mailto:specialcollections@smith.edu
Teaser image	Upload a teaser image. This image is displayed where solr collections are listed in teaser view mode. It should have a roughly 4 wide by 3 tall aspect ratio, with minimum dimensions of 1500x350.
Counts	Do not edit this field.
Facets to display on page	Select the facets to display on the collection's Solr view page. Choose the following: genre, subject (topical), creator, date created, date issued.
Publishing options	Check the Published box.

4. Select Save.

Delete an Islandora collection

Before deleting a collection you will want to be sure that all objects are purged and all batch sets are deleted. If this process has not been completed orphaned child objects will remain on the server.

1. Scroll to the footer menu, and select Islandora Repository. Drill down to find and select the Islandora collection that you wish to delete.

2. Once in the folder, select the Manage tab, underneath the navigation breadcrumbs. This will take you to the backend management dashboard.

3. Select the Properties tab on the management dashboard.

4. Select Delete Collection.

5. You will be asked to confirm whether or not to delete the collection. If certain, select Delete.