Lesson Videos
Introduction
In this lesson, the following subjects will be covered:
- Projects, listings, and folders
- Choosing a listing
- Creating a new folder
Before you can capture digital images, you need to create a folder that will organize and track the images. This folder also tracks the metadata that describes them. Metadata includes information like dates, locations, and record types.
From the home page of the DCam software, click Manage Projects, Listings, and Folders. The project, listings, and folder screen will display and is separated into 3 sections. Each section has a menu next to it that includes different choices.
Projects
The top left section is the project area. Projects refer to all of the records agreed upon within the contract between the record custodian and FamilySearch. Projects are created by headquarters. This detailed contract determines what documents are to be captured.
There are 2 types of projects that you may find listed in the project section, depending on the version of DCam software you are using. There will be a transition of software versions that will take place over the next several years.
Most archival sites operate in standard mode. As time progresses, all sites will migrate to online mode, commonly referred to as Infinity mode. If your site has not migrated to online mode, you will see a blue bar at the top of the DCam screen. After your site migrates to online mode, you will find a green bar at the top of your screen. When it is time to migrate, your field supervisor or area manager will inform you.
Projects that were created for standard mode look different than those created for online mode. Standard projects use a naming convention such as 18-1548_OH-US. The numbers and letters in the name are represented as follows:
- The number 18 stands for the year of the contract.
- The number 1548 is a unique identifier.
- The letters OH stand for the state of Ohio.
- The letters US stand for United States.
Projects have a different appearance when they have been transitioned to online mode. Online mode uses a numbering system such as MMMM 3M9.
Your archive may begin in standard mode with projects listed in the standard method. When you are asked to transition, after closing out any standard projects, the only projects you will be assigned will be online projects. Though you may see your previous standard mode projects listed in the projects folder, you will not be able to highlight or access any of them.
Listings
The top right section contains listings. After you highlight a project, its listings display here. Listings are also created by headquarters and are basically smaller pieces of the original project. For example, the project may be all vital records that are then broken down into listings of birth, marriage, and death records by dates, by volumes, and by other factors, depending on how the record custodian organized the records.
To determine which listing to choose, have the group of documents in hand that you will capture. Find which of the listings they fit, and review those documents for the record type, the volume, the date, and other factors that define them. After you highlight the correct listing, move to the folders section.
Folders
The bottom section is for folders. You will be responsible for creating folders and capturing the images that will reside within them. The detailed information you enter in
the folder field creates the descriptive information that is called metadata. The metadata displays when the images are published to the FamilySearch website.
One way to visualize projects, listings, and folders is to think of an office file cabinet.
- The project can be compared to the file cabinet as a whole.
- The listings can be compared to the file drawers within the file cabinet. They help organize all of the items in the file cabinet into smaller, searchable groups.
- Of course, the digital folders can be compared to file folders. They represent specific sets of records to be filed within the larger file drawer.
There may be times when you discover that listings do not cover all of the physical records. You may be asked to capture records by the record custodian, or you may even identify records that you feel could be beneficial to FamilySearch that do not fit within one of the listings. Capturing records outside of the documented listings can create a legal issue that is related to our contractual agreement with the record custodian.
The following are examples of listings that could create a legal issue:
- You might have 3 volumes of birth records, but only volume 2 and volume 3 are covered by listings.
- You find guardianship records for a county whose dates are between 1900 and 1910, but the listing only covers the years between 1900 and 1905. The years 1906 through 1910 are not covered in a listing.
You should not change a listing to cover a larger date range or number of volumes or any other information. In both cases, you need to request a new listing.
A request for a new listing needs to be discussed with, and approved by, your field supervisor or area manager. The request will move through a review process by legal and operational teams before it can be approved or denied.
The following are 2 options for creating a request for a new listing, depending on which version of the DCam software you are using:
- Option 1: The standard version is most easily identified by a blue bar at the top of the screen. Propose these listings through your field supervisor or area manager by making a request for a listing that covers the information you want to capture. The supervisor will make your request to headquarters and get back to you after a decision is made. If the request is approved, your supervisor will give you the password needed to create the listing.
- Option 2: The online version is most easily identified by a green bar at the top of the screen. The process to create a new listing is slightly different from standard mode. In the menu next to the listing box on the projects, listings, and folders screen, click Create. Complete the required fields, and click Save to submit the request to headquarters. Prior to receiving approval in online mode, you can capture images for a new listing you have requested.
Note: If the request is denied, however, the folders and images that you have captured within the new listing cannot be accepted into the operational process. Your computer system will not close out and transport the folders and their images.
Using the previous examples of listings that could create a legal issue, volume 1 in the first example may have been forgotten by the initial FamilySearch representative who entered the listing data. Capturing those images is necessary. In that case, the new listing would be approved, and the images you captured in folders within it would be accepted.
In the second example, the dates between 1906 and 1910 may have already been captured. The listing you suggested is not required. In that case, the listing would be denied. Any work you did under that listing would not be accepted.
A best practice is to begin creating folders and capturing images within a current listing that does not require the approval process. Doing so allows you to confidently create folders and capture images while waiting for approval on listings you have suggested.
The most basic digital group of records you will work with is a digital folder. Each digital folder is defined based on an archival unit, which is the smallest natural group of documents with which you are working.
An archival unit might be a single object (a book) or something you might pick up with one hand (a folder). For example, a folder that contains one year of death certificates for a single county is one archival unit and would define one digital folder.
Even though a file box appears to group things together, a file box containing multiple probate packets would not be one archival unit. Each individual probate packet within the box would create the smallest natural group. Individual probate packets would be an archival unit and define its own digital folder.
Each time you create a digital folder, the information from the listing is automatically populated into the folder screen. A listing is only a smaller breakout of the project. The project is very broad and contains volume ranges, date ranges, and record types that are not specific to the documents you are capturing. Information needs to be changed in the folder to be specific to the archival unit. This ensures that the digital folder is unique.
Once you have chosen the correct project and listing from the menu on the left side of the folders section, complete the following steps to enter or modify each field:
Step 1: Click Create. The folders screen displays.
Step 2: At the top of the screen in the Use Information from Folder field, leave the field blank unless you need to re-enter information for that listing.
Note: There may be circumstances where you would modify the information in this field.
Step 3: In the record title field, enter the descriptive title assigned to the archival unit, such as the name on the spine of the book. This would not include the date, volume, or locality.
Step 4: In the volume designation field, enter the letter, number, or special character to identify the archival unit. Examples are the number 3 or the Roman numeral III.
Note: Do not enter signifiers such as Vol or Box, dates, or localities. If there is not a volume type, enter 3 hyphens (- - -) in this field.
Step 5: In the dates field, use entries specific to the archival unit you are capturing. This includes when the events were recorded or when the documents were created. To change the dates to reflect the date range of the archival unit, click the arrow next to the appropriate year field.
Note: Generally, the dates will be full year ranges. If the records are for the entire year of 1837, enter 1837 in the first date box, and enter 1837 in the second date box. If the date includes multiple years such as 1837 to 1840, enter 1837 in the first date box and 1840 in the second date box.
Note: Months should only be used if the archival unit spans partial years. An example is the date range of February 1837 to June 1838. If the month field does not display, to display the month field, click the month check box.
Step 6: To make a selection, click the drop-down menu.
Note: Days are only added if the archival unit spans partial months. An example of when to specify days is the date range of 1 June 1837 to 15 June 1837. If the days field does not display, to display the days field, check the day check box.
Note: The abbreviation Ca. means circa (or approximately). Never use this to approximate time periods.
Step 7: If the information is not written on the document containers, find the individual dates or the date ranges on the documents themselves. As soon as you enter a date, the These Dates are Confirmed to be Correct check box is automatically checked.
Note: If the date fields are correct as they were auto populated from the listing, you do not need to change them. You may need to manually check the box.
Step 8: Enter the archive reference number if the record custodian supplies you with one. This is a unique number that record custodians use to identify and track their records. The default for this field is for an archival reference number to be generated based on fields you have already completed (a process called concatenation).
Example: For delayed births, volume 22 in the year 1837, the software will concatenate the record title, volume designation, and the dates fields to create the entry Delayed Births_22_1837.
Step 9: Prepare to enter information in the locality field. The locality field is populated from the listing, but it can be too general. You need to ensure that the locality in the field represents the records in hand very specifically.
Example: If the listing is for the state of Utah, you need to review the records and identify which city and county is covered and then add those details.
Step 10: To enter information in the locality field, begin typing in the field. A drop-down menu displays, allowing you to make a selection. The locality you choose needs to be as granular as possible. The following statements explain this further:
- The name of a parish is more granular than a town.
- The name of a town is more granular than a county.
- The name of a county is more granular than a state.
Note: Although the locality should be as granular as possible, be careful not to make changes that make the folder no longer correlate with the listing.
Example 1: Begin typing Salt Lake in the locality field. The system generates options in the drop-down menu that allows you to choose among options such as Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States (1896–Present).
Example 2: If the dates on the records are prior to 1896, choose Salt Lake, Utah Territory, United States (1850–1896).
Note: Be mindful of all determining factors in the records when choosing from the menu, such as when localities were established.
If changing the folder means that it no longer correlates with the listing, then the listing you are using is likely not correct. If that is the case, delete the folder, find the correct listing, and start the folder creation process again.
If you do not find the specific locality you need, you can add a provisional location by clicking Add More Specific Place. When using this option, a dialog box displays and allows you to enter the information. The location remains provisional until headquarters validates it. If the location is not validated, you will be asked to make changes to the locality and resend the images.
Step 11: The language fields are normally filled in by FamilySearch. The primary language should be the most commonly used language in the documents. If you find other languages in the documents, you can add them in the other languages field by selecting them from drop-down menus.
Note: Names of individuals in a different language are not considered another language.
Step 12: When you begin typing in the record type field, a drop-down menu displays. Choose the most specific description you can for the type of records.
Example: If the auto-populated description is probate, but the records are guardianship records, you need to select a better entry. Be as granular as you can in the type of record you choose. Begin typing probate and a list of choices displays. In this case, the best choice under probate reads: Legal Record, Court Record, Probate Record, Probate Guardianship.
Step 13: The area titled Other Information allows for communication with our Image Quality teams, Operational teams, and our guests. Select the descriptive tags that identify the condition of the documents and how that condition relates to the quality of the captured images.
Step 14: From the available tags box on the left, highlight a description such as tight binding or poor copy of original.
Step 15: Click the double arrow button between the 2 boxes. The descriptive tag displays in the selected tags box on the right side of the screen.
Note: Using the available tags denotes that the majority of the folder’s documents have the quality issue that the tags describe. If only a few of the documents have an issue, do not use this feature, but tag those images individually as you capture them.
Step 16: The folder comments field allows you to provide additional information about the condition of the physical group of documents as it pertains to the guest’s ability to search.
Example: If some of the pages are blank, enter a comment similar to Images 50–74 were blank and, therefore, were not captured. If the certificates are not in numerical order, enter that as a comment. Make a comment for anything that would affect the guests’ experience when trying to find their ancestors.
Do not comment on the following conditions:
- Problems with documents that are obvious in the images.
- The size of the documents.
- That the documents are in a book.
- Other similar information.
Step 17: When all information has been accurately recorded in the folder screen, click Save and Capture.
Step 18: You are ready to calibrate your camera if you have not already done so, or you can begin capturing images.
Learning Experiences
Activity 1: Check Your Understanding
- How many types of projects can be found in the projects section?
- In your own words, define the following items:
- Projects
- Listings
- Folders