Table of Contents
- Start
with some key definitions of terms you may know?
- What type of
information is in the Database?
- How
does the search system work?
- What will I see as
results of the archive searches?
- Where and how do I
get started?
- What
are the Search Options?
- What about Photographs
and Photo Formats?
- Feedback and
Comments?
- What do you do
if you find a piece of information you believe is
incorrect?
Start with some key definitions of
terms you may know (or may not)?
| Term |
Definition and Explanation of
Use |
| Records |
The fundamental building blocks of the database with
fields containing information about a subject, building,
or person. |
| Fields |
Individual pieces of data containing details about
the subject, building, or person. |
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What type of
information is in the Database?
The Fort Collins On-Line History Database supports five major
subject areas: Timeline, Buildings, Photographs, Records, and People
(Names). The database will contain a large amount of
information organized in tables; currently the information is
limited as volunteers continue to enter new information. The
list of Tables below includes a sampling of key
tables and a brief description of their contents.
Table: Photographs -
contains scanned prints, negatives, and slides from the Archive's
historic photograph collections. Any image that is on our site
can be accessed through the Photo
Search option. Currently,this is the best option for
searching as this table has the most information.
Table: People -
contains the unique identifying information for each person in
the database. Data includes: Name, Occupations, Date Of Birth,
Date Of Death, Biography, and a pointer to a primary photo.
Table: People to People Links -
contains one record for each defined relationship between two
people in the database. Data includes: First Person's Name and
their role in the relationship, Second Person's Name and their
role in the relationship, and other fields documenting the
relationship. People must exist in the Table: "People"
before they can be included in a relationship. Allowable
relationships include blood relations, associations,
partnerships, and friendships.
Table: People link to Buildings - contains one record for each defined relationship
between a person and a building or structure in the database.
Data includes: Name of the Person, ID of the Structure, and other
fields documenting the person's role or relationship to the
structure. People must exist in the Table: "People" and
buildings must be defined in the Table:
"Structures_Main" before they can be linked together.
People and places can be directly linked for almost any reason
defined by research, including ownership, residence, place of
birth, childhood residence, place of wedding, and others.
Table:Timeline - contains a chronological list of
events in Fort Collins and Larimer County. Data includes: Year, caption, historic context,
and description of event. Links to People or Buildings that are listed in the event are
also defined in the Table.
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How does the Search System Work?
The On-Line Database contains a large number of pieces of
information from a variety of historical publications and
sources. There are two major types of searches, Linked
and Un-Linked.
- Linked: A menu of search
engines browse through the database for
records which match search criteria in each of the major
subject areas: Timeline, Buildings, Photographs, and
People (Names). The search engines provide you with lists
of information based on the values which actually exist
in the fields associated with each record. These lists
allow you to "follow a trail" of more detailed Search Options
that will lead you through all of the subject
areas. Most users will use the archive via these linked
searches.
- Un-Linked: These searches are available
through the Records Search option and
access lists from historic sources. This information will
not directly link to other information in the database.
An example of an Un-Linked search involves on-line city
directories. The earliest known city directory dates from
1902 and contains a list of all residents and addresses
compiled by a door-to-door survey and postal records.
While this information is very useful, the names of
people, streets, and numeric addresses may not link to
current spellings of names of people and streets. There
is no requirement for information in the Un-Linked
searches to lead to more information in the database. For
example, you can now search the 1906 City
Directory, but a person may appear in the 1906
city directory without being included in the database
(yet).
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What will I see as results from the
archive searches?
The Linked searches make use
of "frames" to display information for the user. The
Linked search uses the left column for
presenting lists and the large main frame for displaying input
forms and detail records.If your browser does not
support frames, the non-frame sequential access method is not
currently supported. The frame format provides a narrow top
banner and a lower body divided into two frames. The left column
is defined to a default width that is narrower than the right
main frame. The user may adjust the width of the two columns by
dragging the dividing bar between the columns to the right or
left as required. The default widths are optimized to
consistently display the output from the database in a user
friendly format. The optimal screen resolution uses a screen
width of 1024 pixels but will function in most cases at a lower
or higher resolution.
Un-Linked searches are accessed through the Records
Search. This search solicits input in
fields in the large main frame and uses the narrow left frame to
display lists of results. Since the lists of results from
un-linked sources often contain more "free form"
information, the larger frame is necessary to help interpret the
search results.
In general, hyperlinks in one frame will drive changes in the
adjacent frame.
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Where and how do I get started?
There are 5 buttons in the banner at the top of each page that
allow you to search for information in 5 different subject areas
from the database: Photo Search, People Search, Building
Search, Records Search, and Timeline Search.
These search options also appear in the left frame. When
you click on any type of search option, the default search will appear
in the right frame and a list of the various types of searches will
appear in the left frame. Each of the searches has instructions included
on each page, and you can access more detailed instructions by clicking Search Tips in the right frame. For
example: Click on the Photo Search button. A
screen will appear in the left frame that gives you a choice of
types of photo searches. The default is the Advanced
Photo Search option. This option allows you to do a Keyword Search that will currently return the
most information, for it searches the description for any word you enter into the search. The Advanced Search also allows you to limit your search by collections, date, etc., if you so choose. The Buildings
subject area requires you to
know the "name" of the building as it appears in the
database. The People (Names) subject area
requires you to know the "name" of the person as it
appears in the database. You can find the correct name by using the Surname Search drop-down menu.
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Summary of Options
Anytime a user accesses a record from the database, the page
will provide buttons or links which represent new search options to find
related information.
Most search buttons will search for related records in the
database and format a list of options in the narrow left column
without eliminating the detail information on the current subject
in the main frame. The user may explore the content of each of
the lists without actually leaving the current detailed record.
The table below includes examples of the options available in the
database.
| Button |
Detail Record Where Used |
Type of Search or Action
Performed |
|
Person - Biographical Record |
Matches the person's record in the
database with information on buildings or structures
related to that person. Building and structures may be
associated with people in many ways including ownership,
residence, built by, designed by, place of business,
place of birth, and others. |
|
Building/Structure detail records |
Matches building records in the database
to people known to be associated with the building or
structure. People can be owners, residents, builders,
architects, or other people associated with the building
by other events. |
|
Person - Biographical Record |
Matches people records in the
relationship database with other people known to be
associated with the person. This is important for
determining other family members. |
 |
Architectural Resources |
Links to a
discussion on Fort Collins Architectural Styles and resources. |
 |
Building/Structure detail records
Architectural details records |
Matches all photos directly associated
with the building and presents a list of thumbnail photos
with brief information in left frame. |
 |
Person - Biographical Record
Building/Structure detail records
Architectural details records |
(under development) Will
provide link to other buildings in the immediate area. |
 |
Person - Biographical Record
Building/Structure detail records |
Displays pages in the left frame providing brief
descriptions of the photo ordering process and the
process for adding new photos of people and buildings.
Direct links to the photo ordering and donations pages
are provided. |
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What about Photographs and Photo
Formats?
The archive database includes photographic images of people
and places dating from the 1860s to present day. These
photographs are available for purchase from the Archive. In
general, the original negatives or prints of these photographs
are stored in the Archive (a limited access area) of the Fort
Collins Public Library. These original materials are referred to
as the Original Image Source or OIS materials. From the OIS
materials a digital image is produced through digital scanning at
resolutions ranging from 400 dpi to 2400 dpi. The resulting
digital image file is referred to as the Original Archival
Digital Image or OADI. The images in the OADI files are stored on
direct write CD-ROM disks in TIFF or TIFF format for long-term
preservation of the image for the next 50 to 100 years. OADI
images may range in average size from 250Kb to 72MB and are not
practical for on-line access. The OADI files are stored in the
original true-color tones from the OIS material.
From the OADI file the on-line archive produces working images
in two formats to support on-line access to the collection.
Thumbnail images for use on the Internet are stored in GIF format
with a maximum image size of 60 X 120 pixels. Thumbnail images
are used extensively with lists and when access options in the
database return multiple images in response to a user's request.
On-line Thumbnail images are usually reduced to 8-bit gray scale
images to conserve download time and storage capacity and
facilitate printing on reports or at remote sites. Large view
images available on-line are stored in JPG or JPEG format using
80% quality compression and 200 dpi with a fixed image width
based on the type of content. 256 Color is retained in the Large
view JPG images whenever the original is in true or fade color.
Selected OADI files may be processed and enhanced to produce
on-line images which address specific purposes such as
identifying individual people or specific building details. It is
possible for a single OADI to result in many Processed Archival
Digital Images or PADI files (insets or details). PADI files
reach into the depths of the photographic evidence to present
specific features or details which may not be readily apparent in
the main image.
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Feedback and Comments?
The archive supports two methods for soliciting your feedback
and comments:
First; you may contact us with
comments. This feedback will help us monitor the satisfaction
level of users of the archive database.
Second; the archive accepts direct public input on people,
relationships between people, linkages of people to buildings,
and timeline events. If you have feedback or comments that relate
to specific information in the database, such as additions or
corrections, you may use the public
input options to submit your comments for review. Using this
option will speed up the response you receive and save time in
implementing the new information you provide.
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What do you do if you find a
piece of information you believe is incorrect?
Every piece of information is subject to review and the
archive supports public input and verification to make sure that
conflicting sources can be resolved effectively. If you find a
piece of information which you believe is incorrect, you may submit a correction using
the public input functions. We encourage you to use the
public input functions because these functions save us time and
improve the quality of the available data. If you have
information on historic events which you feel are incorrectly
portrayed or missing from the Timeline database, you may submit new inputs to the
Timeline which correct the problem or add the missing
information.
Please be sure
to include a clear definition of the subject by clearly
specifying the Affected Person or Persons Name(s) and the
Building Address; include any identifying information such as
birth dates or other descriptive information which will help us
make sure your input is posted to the correct person. Because of
the volume of inputs to the database, we regret that we may not
be able to respond to every input received by postal mail beyond
reviewing the input and posting the data as appropriate.
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