Las Percepciones

Currently, locating desired materials from a simple list of the prototype archive’s initial holdings is easy. As the ReCAP wiki archive grows to incorporate hundreds, and eventually thousands of individual components, utilizing the following built-in features as finding aids to navigate and search for materials will become increasingly important.

Front page. Upon entering the ReCAP wiki, the viewer is presented with the front page (figure 4.15), also known as the home page. The front page offers a brief introduction to the wiki, a clickable bulleted list of tags, a link to the ReCAP Guidelines page, and a link to the Unprocessed Archive page. The researcher can return to this page at any time, and from anywhere within the system, by clicking the “Wiki” tab at the top left of the page.

Figure 4.15. ReCAP wiki front page.

Search box. Visible at the top right of every page within the wiki, the search box allows the researcher to enter terms to search within the archive’s holdings. This tool searches within

the text of wiki topic pages and file names5_{. For example, typing the term “budget” without}

pressing enter produces three immediately visible “live” results: two file names and one topic article (figure 4.16). These results are immediately selectable, enabling the researcher to go directly to the chosen page or item.

5 _{Some services, like PBworks, offer the ability to include searchable text in compatible}

Figure 4.16. Search box functionality.

Keyword searching. Instead of directly selecting from the live results, the researcher can also select “look in page content” (or simply press enter) to search within the text of topic article pages. Searching a keyword in this manner redirects the user to a new page that lists results of the search in page names, file names, and a sample of relevant text describing the materials on the topic page (figure 4.17).

Tag searching. The researcher can further refine results by forcing the search system to look only within archivist-specified tags. In the image below, entering “pedagogy” after a “tag:” search engine modifier returns only results that have been tagged in this manner (figure 4.18). However, tag-specific search functionality is accessible in several other, more intuitive ways.

Figure 4.17, left. Keyword search results.

Figure 4.18, right. Search restricted to tags only by using the “tag:” operator.

Tags sidebar. Similar to the search box above, every page within the wiki features a sidebar visible on the right side of the page. This sidebar displays a bulleted list of the ReCAP’s prescribed tags identical to the list visible on the wiki front page (figure 4.19). Similar to the “tag:” search modifier above, clicking one of these tags redirects the researcher to a separate results page with all wiki contents marked with that tag (figure 4.20).

Figure 4.19, left. Tags sidebar, visible on every page of the wiki.

Figure 4.20, right. Filtered results page after clicking “Pedagogy” tag.

All tagged items. A “See all tagged items” link appears at the bottom of the tags sidebar, as well as at the bottom of every tag-filtered search result. Clicking this link redirects the

researcher to a single page that shows all file and page names contained within the archive sorted by all tags (figure 4.21). Each item listed here is a clickable link to the indicated artifact or page. This page can be effectively used as a total index of the entire archive’s holdings. This makes the entire archive visible in one location, and is continuously updated with every artifact uploaded or page updated.

Figure 4.21. “All tags on this workspace” page.

Page linking. As a method of enhancing the web-like linking between related but distinct topics, the archivist can anticipate and include links within one article that redirects the

researcher to other articles. In the examples below (figure 4.22 and figure 4.23), a researcher may be interested in both handouts and flyers produced by the Writing Studio, although they are tagged differently. The researcher can follow the provided links to move between topics of potential interest.

Figure 4.22. Link to “Center Handouts” topic article from “Flyers” page.

Figure 4.23. Link to “Flyers” topic article from “Center Handouts” page.

Pages and files. As a final method of navigation, the researcher can view a paginated list of all topic articles and artifacts held within the wiki by clicking the “Pages and Files” tab visible at the top of every wiki page (figure 4.24). However, this mode does not provide the context of tags or subtags, and file names alone may not provide enough useful detail.

Figure 4.24. View of all pages and files uploaded to ReCAP wiki.

The variety of finding aids present in the ReCAP wiki are common to many wiki subscription services such as PBworks, but also unique to the design choices instilled in the process. By curating a system with multiple methods to both locate materials intentionally and find artifacts unexpectedly, Studio archivists will support a valuable research resource that connects researchers to necessary detail. Researchers accessing the ReCAP wiki’s holdings can quickly locate whatever they seek, beginning the research process almost immediately at the act of discovery.