Dcam User Guide-The Folders Section

Folder Column Headings
Folder Options
Viewing Folder Statuses
Folders and Natural Groups
Creating a New Folder

The folders section allows you to manage folders. You can view folders and their status, access folder information, and create new folders. Only camera operators create folders. Projects and listings are created by other teams.

Folder metadata must comply with the Listing Date, Locality, and Record type of the parent listing. A red X icon indicates the folder contains metadata that is outside the listing coverage data. Hover your mouse cursor over the icon for a description of the compliance problem. A green checkmark icon indicates the folder metadata is compliant with the listing.

Folder Column Headings

The following are headings of the folder section:

• ID: An automatically generated unique identifier that identifies a folder within a listing.
• Record Title: The record’s name for the contents in the folder.
• Volume: In a set of volumes, the identifier assigned by the archive.
• Dates: The time period or beginning and ending dates for the folders.
• Status: The folders’ status.
• Images: The number of images and their statuses.
• Create Time: The time and date that the folder was created.
• Media Number: The media number for the batch in which the folder was shipped.
• Week Ending: The date of the Friday of the week in which the folder was shipped.
• External HD: The external hard drive on which the folder shipped.
  

Folder Options

Tasks you can perform with the Folder section are listed on the left and include:

• Create: Click this option to create a new folder. Make sure to highlight the correct listing first.

  Note: A new folder can also be created in the listings section of the screen. Simply click Add Folder.
  

• Information: Select this option to check that the information is correct and complete. Make any needed corrections.
  
• Capture Images: After a folder is created, DCam confirms that the information and the folder are saved. To calibrate the camera and begin capturing images, click Capture Images.
  
• View Images: To look at the images you have captured, click View Images. The view images screen allows you to view the images without requiring camera recalibration. This option does not allow you to capture images.
  

• Close: After you have captured and evaluated all of the images for the folder, click Close.

  Note: Clicking this option reopens a folder you closed so that you can, for example, recapture more images.
  

• Reopen from External HD: Click this option if you need to reopen a folder that you previously transferred to an external hard drive but that you have not shipped.

  Note: Use this option, and this option only, to view or work with previously closed and transferred folders that you have not yet shipped.
  

• Delete: Click this option to delete a folder. Be careful to select the correct folder before deleting it.

  Note: Folders cannot be deleted if they contain captured images.
  

• Import Images: Select this option to import images into an empty folder that has not been calibrated. If there are existing images in the folder, the imported images are inserted after the existing images.
  
• Export Images: Use this option to transfer folders that are primarily used by archives.
  
• More: Choose this option to do the following:
  
  • Move Folder: Move a folder from this listing to another listing.
    

Viewing Folder Statuses

To filter project folders according to status, click the check boxes at the bottom of the Folder section (right of the word “Show”) as follows:

• All: Shows all folders.
• Empty: Shows only empty folders.
• Open: Shows all open folders.
• Importing: Shows all folders importing images.
• Evaluated: Only shows folders in which the images have been evaluated.
• Closed: Shows all closed folders.
• On HD: Shows all folders that are on the external hard drive.
• Shipped: Shows all folders that have been shipped but are not marked as completed.
• Completed: Shows all folders that have been shipped and marked as completed.
• Resend Only: Shows folders that were marked for resend.
• Rework Only: Shows folders that were opened for rework.
  

Folders and Natural Groups

Folders manage the basic level of all archival records that you work with. You create folders to capture the metadata, which is descriptive information associated with each record. That information includes Record Title, Cover Tag, Volume, Dates, Locality, and Record Type. The first important step in creating a digital folder in DCam is organizing the records you have in hand into a group size that is appropriate for a digital folder.

The table below shows some of the ways record custodians can organize their records.

When you get records from the archive, you receive “archival units.” These are the basic groups in which the archive has shelved, boxed, filed, or otherwise contained the records. These groups, however, may be too big. The group size that you need to work with is the smallest “natural group” you can find within the archival unit.

A natural group is a set of records that share basic metadata. Often the records are grouped this way by a government agency, as when they are bound in volumes of books or probate packets. While the archival units can be the smallest natural group, as with books (no matter how large the book is) when they are not, you need to select the smallest natural group within the archival units.

Think of the smallest natural group as something that you might pick up with one hand, such as a book, a single folder of death certificates, or a single case file. For example, if the archival unit you are working with is a file box containing probate packets, you will not create a digital folder for the entire file box of probate packets; you will create a digital folder for each individual probate packet within the file box. In this case, probate packets represent the smallest natural group.

The table below shows specific examples of common record containers along with notes on whether they should be identified as natural groups.

Creating a New Folder

To create a digital folder in DCam, go to the Manage Projects, Listings, and Folders (PLF) screen, and in the left panel in the Folders section, click Create. The folders information screen displays. Many of the fields in this screen are already populated with information from the listing you chose. Confirm the information provided in each field and enter information into the fields where information was not provided.

Step 1: On the home screen, click Manage Projects, Listings, and Folders.

Step 2: On the PLF screen, select the correct project and listing.

Step 3: In the folders section, click Create. The folders information screen displays. Many of the fields in this screen are already populated with information from the listing you chose. (You can create all of the folders for the listing at one time or create each folder as you need it.)

Step 4: Enter, review, and correct the folder information. For details, see the next section titled “Folder Information Screen Fields.”

Step 5: When done, click 1 of these buttons at bottom of the screen:

• Save and Capture
• Save
• Cancel