Suggestions and examples for using the virtual
collection’s
searching capacity
The use of controlled vocabulary in data fields
for certain anticipated categories of photograph subjects allows
the user to draw out from
the entire collection certain subsets of subjects. The 325 subjects
are displayed in alphabetical order, by last name. Searching through
this collection is made possible via the “Advanced Search” feature.
Choosing “Advanced Search” from the collection display
menu bar links to a page allowing a variety of search queries/combinations.
First, click ‘off’ all collections in the “Select
available collections” section except the desired one (Oberlin
College and Military Service in World War I). Then, click on “Selected
fields” (rather than “Across all fields,” unless
that is the desired scope). The searchable fields for the metadata
in the collection will appear as options on a menu.
For example, if one would like to view the fifteen women in the
photograph collection, enter the term women and select
the “General Remarks” data field from the menu. Likewise,
the photographs of several African-American and Asian subjects
have been identified. Enter African-American or Asian as
a search term and select the “General Remarks” field
to isolate these subsets in a query. Entering France in
the “Location of service” field would yield all those
who served in some capacity in France.
As another example, if the user wished to identify any subjects
who died in 1918, entering 1918 and selecting the “Name” field
on the search page would yield this subset, as death dates—if
known—are contained in this field. Similarly, one could
perform a search based on Oberlin class affiliation and death year
by combining two separate search limiters on the Advanced Search
page.
Abbreviations used in the data fields of the virtual
collection
Cons. Oberlin Conservatory of
Music
enr. Enrolled (usually precedes a list of the
years a person was enrolled at Oberlin)
ex- This denotes a class affiliation for those
individuals - both war era classes and otherwise - who left without
completing work for
an Oberlin degree (excluding those who were designated H.W.M.).
Dates of enrollment are given, if known.
H.W.M. (Honorary War Membership) The
Oberlin College Board of Trustees extended an honorary class membership
to those individuals serving in the war who had completed
the bulk of their studies at the time of their enlisting. Many
of these students later completed the work for a degree, at Oberlin
or elsewhere. The use of the term in the “Oberlin Class of” field
indicates that the individual was granted this honorary affiliation
and did no further work toward an Oberlin degree.
S.A.T.C. Student Army Training Corps
Y.M.C.A. Young Men’s Christian
Association, generally abbreviated as YMCA, without periods
Additional Notes
- All class affiliations or degree listings given without an
institutional name are Oberlin degrees.
- The “Personal Papers” field indicates whether
or not the individual’s papers are a separate collection
held by the Oberlin College Archives. If so, the hyperlink in
the field
will bring the user to the collection’s finding guide located
on the College Archives’ web site.
- Use of the word “Unknown” indicates that
after a search of both the student’s file and other related
materials held by the College Archives, the information is
unknown. Where
appropriate,
the field is left blank (as with “Medals”) rather
than filled with “Unknown.” Missing death and other
dates are indicated by the presence of a question mark.
|