FAQ/Help Page for Digital Collections
- How can I access the Digital Collections?
- What is in the Digital Collections?
- What are some examples of Historical Documents available online?
- How do I search the Digital Collections?
- PDF issues:
- What does VP "virtual part" mean?
- How do I interpret what I see in the Search Results screen?
- Why can't I bookmark items in the Digital Collections?
- When I use the browser's back button or the Digital Collections back button why do documents that I have previously opened continue to pop up?
- What is the structure of the New York State Publications Collection?
- What is the structure of the New York State Library Scanned Documents Collection?
- How do the Digital Collections relate to the Excelsior catalog?
- Are any of these materials protected by copyright?
- For more information..
How Can I Access the Digital Collections?
The user has several options for accessing the documents:
- Option 1: Use the search box in the banner of this page, or on the Library's home page. The default "Catalog and Web site" option automatically searches the Library's Catalog, NYSL and OCE Digital Collections, and NYSL Web site.
- Option 2: Search the catalog as usual. If a document is available online, there will be a link to it in the "Electronic Access" field of the catalog record. Click on the link to open the document.
- Option 3: Access Digital Collections directly:
- To view documents in the Digital Collections, browser pop-up blockers should be disabled.
- Search: From the catalog, click on the "Digital Collections" button near the top of the page. Enter your search term and click the "Search" button.
- Use the default "Metadata Search" for best results.
- Browse: From the catalog, click on the "Digital Collections" button near the top of the page. Then click the "Browse" button near the top of the page. Then click "New York State Publications" or "New York State Library Scanned Documents Collection". (Organizational structure of these collections is explained below.)
- To display collections click on the hyperlink or the Browse button.
- To expand the collection click on the subsequent links.
- Links to images will display the image in a new window.
- To display information about the data (metadata), select the icon next to the link.
- To view documents in the Digital Collections, browser pop-up blockers should be disabled.
- You can also click the Search Digital Collections button on the main Catalog / Digital Collections page.
What's in the Digital Collections?
The Digital Collections consist primarily of over 65,000 documents (approximately 2 million pages) relating to New York State.
There are three main collections:
- New York State Government Publications (including Regents exams from 1957 through the current year)
- New York State Library Scanned Documents Collection (including scanned monographs and selected broadsides, maps, mansucripts, and scores from the Library's Manuscripts and Special Collections), and
- Education Laws and Policy Documents.
What are some examples of Historical Documents available online?
Please see Historical Documents Available Online from the New York State Library.
How do I Search the Digital Collections?
There are two types of searches - Metadata and Full-Text.
- Metadata (the default) enables users to find documents based on the information associated with each of the documents, such as the title and author. (To view this data, click on the folder
(or other icon) next to the document link. See sample screen shot.)
Metadata Search is the most effective way to search the Digital Collections. - Full-Text: [Note: Full-text searching is currently unavailable (September 15, 2008).] Most of the NYS documents in the Library's collection are scanned from printed documents. A limited number of documents are "captured" from agency Web sites in searchable PDF format. Full-text searching within the Library's Digital Collections provides users the ability to find documents based on the textual information within these captured documents. (However, for best results use the Metadata Search button.)
I have Adobe Acrobat but still cannot open the electronic documents. What's going on?
Do you have a pop-up blocker? The electronic documents in the Digital Collections open in a new browser window. If you have disabled "pop-ups" either through your browser or through an ad-blocking software tool, the electronic documents cannot open.
If you are using your browser (e.g., FireFox or Internet Explorer) to block pop-ups, you may be able to allow pop-ups from specific sites, such as the Library's catalog: http://nysl.nysed.gov. If you are using other ad-blocking software or pop-up blockers, check your documentation for how to allow pop-ups from specific sites, or turn off the ad-blocking feature.
For example, the Google Toolbar has a built-in pop-up blocker. To see the pop-ups, use one of the following options:
- Click the pop-up button on the Google toolbar to always allow pop-ups on a particular site (such as nysl.nysed.gov).
- To let an individual pop-up through, press the Ctrl key while pressing a link.
- To turn off the pop-up blocker, from the Settings menu on the right side of the Google toolbar, select "Options," then the "More" tab. Uncheck the box for "pop-up Blocker."
Do you have a firewall?: Some users who have initially had trouble accessing our scanned documents have reported that they've been able to access the documents if they turn off their firewall temporarily.
Can you access other PDFs on the NYS Library site? For example, can you acccess the file at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/msscfa/pr/sc5985.pdf? This a PDF file, but it's not in the Digital Collections system, so if you can get to it, Adobe is probably not the problem.
Can you access other PDFs in the NYS Library's Digital Collections? For example, can you open http://purl.org/net/nysl/nysdocs/NYSR89-A384? This PDF file is stored in the Digital Collections system, but it is only three pages, which makes it much smaller than most of the scanned documents. If you can access this file but not another one, then the problem might be the size of the other document. (Some have hundreds of pages and can take a couple minutes to completely load, particularly when accessed from off site).
Where is your PDF reader? If you've been able to open PDF files before, but now you are getting a blank screen, make sure your browser can find your PDF reader. One way to do this is to open the PDF reader separately. Once the reader is opened, click the link for the electronic document again, and it should open.
I'm using Opera browser and I cannot open the electronic documents (PDFs). What's going on?
The solution is to identify as a browser other than Opera. For Opera Version 9.26:
- Go to the site (nysl.nysed.gov).
- From the menu, select Tools > Quick preferences > Edit site preferences
(Mac: Opera > Quick preferences > Edit site preferences) - Click the "Network" tab
- In the "Browser identification" drop-down, select "Identify as Internet Explorer" or "Identify as Firefox" (or "Identify as Mozilla" in older versions of Opera)
- Click "OK"
- Reload the page. (Excerpted from Opera Help.)
What formats are the Digital Collections in?
The Digital Collections are provided primarily as PDF; however, there are also some text and Microsoft Word files.
Other Digital Collections: You can also access other digital materials collected by the NYS Office of Cultural Education (OCE), which includes the State Library, Museum and Archives. Collections include digitized photographs, manuscripts, and other material, mainly in jpg format.
What does VP "virtual part" mean?
Occasionally, you will see VP-1, VP-2, or the phrases "VIRTUAL-PART-1, VIRTUAL-PART-2" etc. This means that a large document has been broken down into separate units, to better aid in viewing the documents over the Web with smaller file sizes. For example, a 1000-page document might be divided into five 200-page files. The document is not altered in any way.
How do I interpret what I see in the Search Results screen?
"VP" means "Virtual Part"--see above for explanation.
Click on the hyperlinks to see the full text resource. (Links labeled "DOCUMENT" will bring you to the digital resource itself.)
Results labelled "Levels" (as in LEVEL4 at left), represent the folder where the parts of the document are stored.
To see the structure of the collection where a document is stored, click on the folder icon. To see the metadata related to the document, click on the page icon next to the folder.
Why can't I bookmark items in the Digital Collections?
A session-dependent, dynamic method is used to generate and open items in the Digital Collections. This means that the URL used to access documents is not persistent across time. If you wish to bookmark document locations, you may search the catalog on the document's title or author. After locating the document in the catalog, you may save the link location in the "Electronic Access" field of the catalog record.
When I use the browser's back button or the Digital Collections back button why do documents that I have previously opened continue to pop up?
When navigating back to a previously viewed page, the Digital Collections will automatically open any documents that were previously accessed from that page. This is a non-correctable feature of the Digital Collections.
What is the structure of the New York State Publications Collection?
The New York State Publications collection splits the state documents by branch of government first (Executive, Judicial, Legislative), and then subdivides by state agency. Chronological serials are put in their own folders (ex: New York State Publications - Executive Branch - Agriculture and Markets - New York agricultural statistics).
The "Browse" button near the top of the page brings you to the top level of the Digital Collections.
What is the structure of the New York State Library Scanned Documents Collection?
The New York State Library Scanned Documents Collection contains historical and other library materials. It is organized by format (broadsides, maps, manuscripts, etc.), and by Dewey Decimal Class.
For more information on selected resources in this collection, please see Historical Documents Available Online from the New York State Library.
How do the Digital Collections relate to the Excelsior catalog?
The Digital Collections provide access to select online material referenced in the Excelsior catalog. Through the Electronic Access tag, a link is made between the catalog record and the item managed in the Digital Collections. Our online catalog displays this tag and clicking on it will take you to the item. More detailed information and subject headings may be found in catalog records.
Are any of these materials protected by copyright?
Every effort has been made to select and present material in the public domain. Some materials, particularly State Agency records, may be protected by copyright laws. The nature of these materials may make copyright difficult or even impossible to determine. When known, information on permissions is noted in the metadata. The Office of Cultural Education, NYS Department of Education, is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes.
The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with the user.
For More Information...
For more information about accessing the New York State Documents in the Library's Digital Collections, please e-mail excelsior@mail.nysed.gov.