SDA User Manual 782013 Updated

7/28/2019 SDA User Manual 782013 Updated

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Stalin Digital Archive User Guide

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Contents1.0 What does this archive contain? ........................................................................................................... 2

1.1 RGASPI Materials (Bibliographic Records, Scanned Page Images)................................................ 2

1.1.1 Fond ........................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.2 Opis ............................................................................................................................................ 2

1.1.3 Delo ............................................................................................................................................ 3

1.1.4 Document ................................................................................................................................... 3

1.2 Annals of Communism Materials ..................................................................................................... 3

1.2.1 Annals of Communism Volumes ............................................................................................... 3

1.2.2 Annals of Communism Documents ........................................................................................... 3

2.0 Accessing the Archive .......................................................................................................................... 4

2.1 Logging in with an institutional subscription ................................................................................... 4 3.0 What can I do in this archive?............................................................................................................... 5

3.1 Search Content .................................................................................................................................. 5

3.1.1 Performing a Search ................................................................................................................... 5

3.1.2 Wild card search ........................................................................................................................ 8

3.1.3 Failed keyword search ............................................................................................................... 9

3.1.4 Working with Search Results..................................................................................................... 9

3.2. Browse ........................................................................................................................................... 14

3.2. Document Viewer .......................................................................................................................... 16

3.3.2 Image Viewer Panel ................................................................................................................. 17

3.3.3 Text Viewer Panel.................................................................................................................... 19

3.3.4 Document Info Panel ............................................................................................................... 20

4.0 MySDA ............................................................................................................................................... 23

4.1 MySDA Home ................................................................................................................................ 23

4.2 Notifications .................................................................................................................................... 23

4.3 Research Interests ........................................................................................................................... 24

4.3.1 Joining a Research Interest ...................................................................................................... 24

4.3.2 Creating a New Research Interest ............................................................................................ 25

4.4 Private Groups ................................................................................................................................ 25

4.4.1 Joining a Private Group ........................................................................................................... 26

4.4.2 Creating a New Private Group ................................................................................................. 26

4.5.......................................................................................................................................................... 27

Discussion Forums ................................................................................................................................ 27


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4.5.1 The Discussion Boards Page .................................................................................................... 27

4.5.2 Participating in a topic thread .................................................................................................. 28

4.5.3 Creating a new topic thread ..................................................................................................... 28

4.6 Library............................................................................................................................................. 29

4.6.1 Saving a document ................................................................................................................... 29

4.6.2 Managing and Sharing Documents in the MySDA Library .................................................... 29

4.6.3 Saved Searches......................................................................................................................... 30

4.7 Community Pages ........................................................................................................................... 30

4.7.1 My Profile ................................................................................................................................ 30

4.7.2 Research Interests .................................................................................................................... 31

4.7.3 Private Groups ......................................................................................................................... 31

4.8 My Annotations .............................................................................................................................. 31

4.9 My Tags .......................................................................................................................................... 31

1.0 What does this archive contain?

1.1 RGASPI Materials (Bibliographic Records, Scanned Page Images)

The Stalin Digital Archive (SDA) consists primarily of scanned page images and corresponding bibliographic records written in Russian created by the Russian State Archive of Social and PoliticalHistory (RGASPI). The primary source material represented by these images and records includedocuments relating to Joseph Stalins personal biography, his work in government, and his conduct of foreign affairs. RGASPIs method of organizing this material in th e physical archive is a hierarchicalsystem of nesting folders, and this structure has informed both the selection of material for the SDA andits ultimate presentation. To understand this archives content and organization, it is therefore necessaryto re view the physical archives organizational system.

1.1.1 FondThe fond is the highest- level organizational structure in RGASPIs physical collection.Functionally, each fond is like a filing cabinet that contains several drawers filled with folders.Within RGASPIs collection, Fond 558 is the filing cabinet dedicated to materials aboutJoseph Stalin; it contains approximately 40,000 unique documents. Yale University Press (YUP)and RGASPI have chosen to include only selected documents from this section of the physicalarchive, for a total of approximately 29,000 unique documents comprising 300,000 scanned pageimages.

1.1.2 OpisEach fond in RGASPIs collection contains a number of opisi , the functional equivalent of afiling cabinets drawers (to extend the analogy i ntroduced above). Each opis in Fond 558organizes the materials about Joseph Stalin based on content, chronology, or some combinationof those two categories. YUP and RGASPI have chosen to concentrate on making available asubset of opisi in Fond 558 containing the most noteworthy documents. These opisi are:


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Opis 1: Documents written by Stalin from 1889 1952. Opis 2: Documents written by Stalin from 1911 1944. Opis 3: Over 300 books from Stalin's personal library with his marginalia. Opis 4: Stalin's biographical materials. Opis 11: Stalin's correspondence and documents. This Opis covers the period from 1917 to

1952.

The SDA contains a complete set of bibliographic records and scanned images for these opisi,excluding only materials classified by the Russian state government.

1.1.3 DeloExtending the analogy introduced above, each delo corresponds to an individual folder within thefiling cabinets (fonds) drawers (opisi). As is true of al l folders in general, some dela containloose pages with no further organizing structure and some contain pages collected into discretedocuments. This structure has been carried over from RGASPIs o rganizational structure into theSDA, just like the fond and opisi divisions; the editors have included all declassified dela

contained in the five opisi from Fond 558 listed above.

1.1.4 DocumentAs mentioned above, some dela contain loose pages with no further organizing structure whileothers contain pages collected into discrete documents. When a delo falls into the latter category,the SDAs editors have preserved the distinction between individual documents present inRGASPIs organizational structure . The SDA contains all declassified documents within delalocated inside those five opisi from Fond 558.

1.2 Annals of Communism MaterialsYale University Press is supplementing the primary source materials provided by RGASPI withdigitized volumes from its acclaimed Annals of Communism (AOC) series. Unlike the content fromRGASPI, the AOC material does not include scanned page images. Instead, it includes the full textof the original print publication, including the English translations of primary source documents.

1.2.1 Annals of Communism VolumesYUP has digitized the twenty-five volumes of the AOC series, which combines translations of

primary source material from a variety of archival sources with editorial commentary. A majorityof these books include material about Joseph Stalin while a few others deal instead with Russianand Soviet history more broadly. These volumes are best seen as a supplement to the archivalmaterial from RGASPI, providing additional content from other archival sources along with

some context via the authors explanatory text. 1.2.2 Annals of Communism DocumentsWhile all primary documents in the AOC series appear within their respective volumetranscriptions, YUP has also included these materials as standalone documents to augmentdiscoverability. (NOTE: All of these documents exist in translation.) For example, users can finda 1942 letter from Molotov to Stalin that appears in an AOC volume via a bibliographic recordindicating that specific documents author (Molotov), r ecipient (Stalin), and date (1942) outsideof its context within an existing AOC volume.


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2.0 Accessing the Archive

The SDA is accessible via institutional subscription. The Search, Browse, and Resource pages areavailable to all users who visit the site. However, users must have an institutional subscription to accessthe Document Viewer and MySDA sections of the site.

A user with an institutional subscription can open documents in the document viewer; print/downloaddocuments from the document viewer; and export citation from the document viewer. However, thatuser must log in to her personal MySDA account before she can access the suite of tools related to user-generated content. These include bookmarks, tags, annotations, discussions, and the ability to savedocuments to personal, private group, or public folders.

2.1 Logging in with an institutional subscriptionIf a user belongs to an institution that subscribes to the SDA, then she will have automatic access to thearchive as long as she is logged in to the subscribing institut ions network . When a user at a subscribinginstitution goes to the SDA website (www.stalindigitalarchive.com ), she will see the text Access

provided by [Institution Name] writ ten in the center of the header (See the images below for examplesof this text).

SDA Header with Institutional Access

SDA Header with Institutional Access - Detail

If you are sure that your institution has purchased access and you still do not see this access message, please log in to your institutional Virtual Private Network (VPN) or relocate to another computer withinyour institution's network.

If you would like to request institutional trial access to the site, please send an emailto [email protected] or fill out the information request format http://www.yalebooks.com/sda/ .

In addition to the Access text, a user with an institutional subscription will see a Log In link and aRegister link in the top right corner of the screen. First time users must create a profile before they areable to log in and access the MySDA functionality. To create a new SDA account:

1) Click the Register link in the top right corner of the screen.2) Fill out the required fields in the resulting Create a New Profile page (Figure 1).3) Click on the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the screen.
http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/http://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/frontend/vpn-overviewhttp://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/frontend/vpn-overviewhttp://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/frontend/vpn-overviewmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.yalebooks.com/sda/http://www.yalebooks.com/sda/http://www.yalebooks.com/sda/http://www.yalebooks.com/sda/mailto:[email protected]://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/frontend/vpn-overviewhttp://www.stalindigitalarchive.com/


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4) An automated email with a username, password, and a link for a one-time login will be sentto the users email address. Open this email and click on the one-time login link.

5) Reset the password, and fill out any other relevant profile information.

After creating a valid MySDA profile, a user can log in to the SDA at any time, as long as she is withinthe network of a subscribing institution.

3.0 What can I do in this archive?

3.1 Search ContentThe SDAs search tool allows for a simple keyword search of all archival content, as well as a morerefined search based on specific bibliographic constraints.

3.1.1 Performing a SearchThe search page is accessible via the Search tab in the top navigation bar. When a user navigatesto the search page, a list of the archives 50 most-viewed documents appears by default in the

center panel of the screen. Enter a keyword into the textbox in the left-hand panel to conduct a basic keyword search of the archives contents . Users can limit this search to a specific bibliographic constraint by using the Search in drop -down menu (Figure 2). Users can alsoemploy Boolean search operators. (For a brief introduction to the Boolean operators used on theSDA site, see http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/manual-2.0.1.html#extended-syntax .)

Figure 1 the Create a New Profile page
http://sphinxsearch.com/docs/manual-2.0.1.html#extended-syntaxhttp://sphinxsearch.com/docs/manual-2.0.1.html#extended-syntaxhttp://sphinxsearch.com/docs/manual-2.0.1.html#extended-syntaxhttp://sphinxsearch.com/docs/manual-2.0.1.html#extended-syntax


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Figure 2: Search in options

A list of the possible Search in options and their definitions follow:

All: The search term can appear in any context (unconstrained).Annotations: The search term can only appear in user-generated annotations associated witha document. The search term can also include user names associated with annotations.Authors: The search term can only appear in a document authors name .ID#: The search term can only appear in a documents archival identification number.

NOTE: Users should employ the following format when searching for a specificdocument by archival identification number, paying special attention to add a singlespace after each comma:

f.558, op.11, d.1, doc.1

Please note that the search tool is not case-sensitive.

Publication dates: The search term can only appear in a documents publication date.Recipients: The search term can only appear in a document recipients name .Subjects: The search term can only appear in a documents subject designations .

Tags: The search term can only appear in user-generated tags associated with a document.Text: The search term can only appear in a documents full-text transcription or translation,if available.Titles: The search term can only appear in a document s title.

Please note that all searches are language-specific, except for author and recipient searches (i.e.,searches constrained to author and recipient fields will return both English and Russian matchesregardless of the language of the search term.).


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Users can also conduct a faceted search by using the filters in the left-hand panel (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Search Filter Options

A list of possible search filters and their definitions follow:

Collections: Filters results to specific collections in the SDA. These include: titles in theYUP s Annals of Communism series; translated primary documents contained in the Annalsof Communism series; and RGASPIs primary documents . Users can further constrainRGASPI documents by fond, opis, and delo.

Keyword: Adds additional keywords to the search parameters.

Names: Filters results using names of document authors and recipients. The list of names

contained within the archive has been alphabetized in both Russian and English.Date: Filters results by specific date or date range (Figure 3b).

Subjects: Filters results based on subject designation, as defined by the SDA EditorialBoard. Currently, these subject designations are only in Russian.

Tags: Filters results based on user-generated tags.


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After entering all desired constraints to the search parameters, click on the Search button toconduct the search.

Users may also conduct a basic keyword search from all other pages of the SDA platform,including the home page, via the basic keyword search box located in the top right corner of thescreen (Figures 4). Simply enter your search term and click on the magnifying lens at the right of the box.

Figure 4

Finally, users can perform searches in Russian via a Cyrillic alphabet keyboard available in theheader of each page on the platform (Figure 5). This virtual keyboard allows users to type inCyrillic in any text field on the site. To begin typing in Cyrillic, 1) click on the keyboard icon inthe header; 2) position your cursor in the necessary text field; then 3) use your mouse to click onthe symbols in the virtual keyboard or start typing with your own keyboard.

Figure 5

NOTE: Users can also re-conduct recent searches and saved searches via the appropriatetabs at the bottom of the left-hand panel. All recent searches are recorded in the Recent

Searches tab. Users can save any search by clicking on the Save Search button that

appears at the top of the results panel after the user has conducted a search. Please notethat a user must be logged in to her MySDA account to be able to save searches.

3.1.2 Wild card searchUsers can conduct searches with the wildcard *. The * functions as an auto-complete for a givenkeyword. For example, a search for sta* will search the database for all words that begin withsta.


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3.1.3 Failed keyword searchIf your keyword search does not yield any results, the archives search engine will provide 5terms that do exist within the archives database and that are alphabetically similar to your initialquery. This list of 5 words will change depending on what you are looking for. Clicking on oneof these terms will conduct a keyword search of the archives contents.

3.1.4 Working with Search ResultsAfter conducting a search, the center panel of the screen will populate with the document resultslist. This search results panel will provide basic bibliographic information about each individualsearch result, including title, author, recipient, ID#, etc. A navigation tool in the top panel of thescreen will indicate how many documents have been found and how many pages are in the list(Figure 6).

Figure 6 Users can adjust the view of the search results list by toggling between the three View As

buttons, located in the top panel. The three view options are List View, Detail View, andThumbnail View.

The default view for the search results panel is List View . In this view, the resulting documentsappear in a sortable grid, with each piece of bibliographic information appearing in a separate


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column. Users can customize which bibliographic fields appear in the grid by selecting the ViewOptions menu above the results list (Figure 7). These view options include:

Avg. Rating : The average rating (from 1 to 5 stars) of a given document. Each user on the sitecan rate a document. This rating reflects a document s scholarly value and/or interest to the SDAcommunity.

Author : Author(s) of a given document.Date : Publication date of a given document.ID# : Repository ID# given document , indicating a documents location within RGASPIsholdings.Recipient : Recipient(s) of a given document.Snippets : The first three instances in which a given keyword appears in a documents text and/or

public annotations. Snippets will appear only after a user has conducted a keyword search.Clicking on these hyperlinked snippets will open the document in the viewer, and will auto-advance the user to the exact location of the given snippet in the text and/or annotations.# of Hits : The number of times a given keyword appears in a documents text and/or publicannotations.Subject : The subject classification of a given document, as determined by the SDA EditorialBoard.Title : The title of a given document.# of Views : The total number of times a given document has been viewed by members of theSDA community.# of Transc Pgs: The number of transcription pages associated with a given document.# of Transl Pgs: The number of translation pages associated with a given document.# of Images : The number of images associated with a given document.

Figure 7

Clicking on the row of one of the titles in List View will populate the Preview panel on the far right of the screen with the relevant documents thumbnail and bibliographic data.


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Detail View displays both the thumbnail image and all of the bibliographic metadata for eachdocument in the results list. Clicking on the hyperlinked tags or subjects will conduct a searchthat uses the selected item as the primary search constraint (Figure 8).

Figure 8

Thumbnail View displays the thumbnail image and a limited amount of bibliographic data for each document in the results list (Figure 9). Click on More Info beneath a documentsthumbnail image for a more detailed presentation of the documents bibliographic informati on.

Figure 9


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Users can re-sort the results list in any view by using the Sort by drop -down menu (Figure 10).In List View, users can also sort the results alphabetically or reverse-alphabetically in bothEnglish and Russian by clicking on the header of any column.

Figure 10

Open a document by clicking the Open button (which appears in both the search results listand in the right-hand preview panel) in List View; by clicking on the thumbnail image or the titleof the document in Detail View; or by clicking on the thumbnail image, title of the document, or the Open button within the More Info panel of the Thumbnail View.

NOTE: Users can open up to 2 documents at a time in the document viewer. To openmultiple documents from the search page, please select the checkbox to the left of each

document you would like to open, and then click on ANY Open button or document title. If you already have one document open in the viewer, then the next document you open will

appear alongside that initial document in multi-doc view. If you already have twodocuments open in the viewer, or if you attempt to open more than two document via thesearch page, then you will receive a message prompting you to select only two documents

(Figure 11).

Figure 11

Users can generate academic citations for search results by using the Export Citation/Results button in the top panel (Figure 12). Simply check the box to the left of the desired title(s) and


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click on Export Citation . The Citation Type options are APA, Chicago, MLA, and Turabian.The Export options are Print to Screen, Export to Endnote, and Export to txt.

Users can also export the all of the bibliographic information for a set of search results to a CSVfile by selecting the Export Citation/Results button in the top panel (Figure 12). Users canexport bibliographic information for a maximum of 3,000 search results items at a time. If thesearch results list exceeds 3,000 items, please use the search filters to refine the list to a smaller number. Please note that the Export Results tool exports all of the items in a search results list

by default, as long as the list is under 3,000 items.

Finally, users can save one or more documents to a personal, private group, or public folder byselecting the checkboxes next to the desired documents and clicking on the Save Document

button in the top panel. Please note that a user must be logged in to her MySDA account to beable to save documents to folders.

Figure 12


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3.2. BrowseThe Browse page allows users to explore the sites content s by categories reflecting bibliographicinformation about documents, or by information about how site users are working with documents. TheBrowse function is analogous to browsing the stacks of a library, while the Search function is analogousto looking for a specific book in a card catalogue.

Navigate to the Browse page by clicking the Browse tab below the site banner. The center panel displaysthe 50 most-viewed documents by default. A list of browsing categories appears in the left-hand panel(Figure 13).

Figure 13

The browsing categories are:

Most-Viewed: Provides a list of the SDAs most viewed documents.

Most-Searched Terms: Provides a list of the SDAs most searched terms.

Popular Tags: Provides a list of popular tags based on usage statistics. Selecting one of thesetags will populate the center panel of the screen with the corresponding list of documents.

Editors Picks: Provides a list of documents selected by SDA editors. This list will be updatedregularly to highlight new, important, newsworthy, or otherwise notable content.

Collections: Provides a list of documents based on specific collections in the SDA. Theseinclude: titles in the YUPs Annals of Communism series; translated primary documentscontained in the Annals of Communism series; and RGASPIs primary documents . Users canfurther constrain RGASPI documents by fond, opis, and delo.

Names: Provides a list of documents based on names of document authors and recipients. Thelist of names contained within the archive has been alphabetized in both Russian and English.


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Timeline: Provides a list of documents based on publication date within a given chronologicalera, as defined by the SDA Editorial Board.

Subjects: Provides a list of documents based on subject designation, as defined by the SDAEditorial Board. Currently, these subject designations are only in Russian.


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3.2. Document Viewer

The Document Viewer displays the text and images that are associated with each document in thearchive. This content is divided into three primary sections: the image viewer panel, the text viewer

panel, and the document info panel (Figure 14).

Figure 14

Users can open documents in the Viewer via the Search, Browse, or MySDA sections of the site. Inaddition to displaying all bibliographic data and content associated with a document, the Viewer alsoallows users to customize documents with personal bookmarks and highlighting. It also enables users toreview and add personal, private group, or public commentary in the form of tags and annotations.

Please note that a user must have institutional access to the SDA in order to be able to open a documentin the Document Viewer. Furthermore, a user with institutional access must log in to her personalMySDA account to be able to access the highlighting, bookmark, tag, annotation, save, and discussionfeatures available within the viewer.

Please note that users can open up to two documents simultaneously within the viewer (Figure 15).Viewers can thus compare images and text of two separate documents side-by-side. Please see the noteat the end of section 3.1.4 for tips on how to open multiple documents in the viewer at once.


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Figure 15

3.1 Document Viewer Toolbar

The Document Viewer toolbar appears at the top of the screen and enables users to view andinteract with documents in a number of ways. Users can save a document to a personal, privategroup, or public folder; download or print up to 10 pages at a time of a documents images,transcription, or translation (N.B. as long as the document has sufficient print privileges); exporta documents academic citation in a range of formats; export all private group and/or publicannotations associated with a document; and adjust the view setting to image only, text only, or image and text. If a particular document has both transcription and translation text, then a user can choose to view either or both. Users can turn the document info panel on or off via the itoggle on the right side of the toolbar. Please note the document info panel is turned off bydefault when the viewer is in Multi Doc mode.

The document viewer toolbar also allows the user to return to the exact page from where sheopened the document (i.e. the Search page) by clicking on the Return link, or to move forward or

backward through the archives contents from within the viewer itself by cl icking on thePrevious Document and Next Document links. If the document open in the viewer is from anAoC volume, then the Next/Previous links will navigate to the next alphabetically organized

AoC document. If the document open in the viewer is from the RGASPI materials, then the Next/Previous links will navigate to the next RGASPI item as organized by ID#.

3.3.2 Image Viewer Panel

The image viewer panel displays images associated with an open document. This panel will beclosed by default if the document does not contain any images. The buttons available on theimage viewer panel toolbar (Figure 16) are:


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Up/down arrows: Allows users to page backwards and forwards through documents withmultiple images/pages.Page Count: Shows the total number of images/pages contained within the document.Users can jump to a page by typing a page number into the text box.Pan Button (arrow and compass): Allows users to pan around the image by clicking anddragging.Zoom Rectangle Button (arrow and box): Allows users to zoom in on an image bydrawing a rectangle over a particular section.Plus/Minus Buttons: Allows users to zoom in and out of an image.Up/Down/Right/Left Arrows: Allows users to pan around an image.Reset Size Button: Resets an image to its original size.Bookmark Button : Allows logged in users to create a personal bookmark referencing aspecific image within a document.Tag Button: Allows logged in users to create personal, private group, or public tagsreferencing a specific image within a document.Annotation Button: Allows users to create personal, private group, or public annotationsreferencing a specific image within a document.Expand Button: Allows users to view a documents images in full-screen (Figure 17).Horizontal Image Gallery: Allows users to scroll horizontally through a document simages.

Figure 16

Figure 17


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A modified image viewer toolbar appears when users view an image in full-screen (Figure 18).The full-screen toolbar features a pair of left and right buttons, which allow users to move

between images, as well as a play button, which allows users to cycle through images as in aslideshow. The thumbnail button displays all the images in the documents in thumbnail view(Figure 19). Buttons on the left side of the toolbar allow users to pan around an image; zoom inon an image by drawing a rectangle over a particular section; or zoom in/out of an image byclicking on + or -. To bookmark, tag, or annotate an image, exit out of full screen mode byclicking on the appropriate button, and click on the bookmark, tag, or annotation button in theimage viewer toolbar.

Figure 18

Figure 19

3.3.3 Text Viewer PanelThe text viewer panel displays the transcription and translation, when available, of an open

document. If the document does not have a transcription and translation, then the text viewer panel will be closed by default. Please note that, in order to create a bookmark, tag, or annotationin the text viewer panel, logged in users must first select a portion of the text, and then click onthe appropriate button. The buttons available on the Text Viewer Panel toolbar are:

Font Size Decrease Button: Decreases the size of the font in the text viewer.Font Size Increase Button: Increases the size of the font in the text viewer.


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Bookmark Button : Allows logged in users to create a private bookmark referencing a particular section of the text.Tag Button: Allows logged in users to create personal, private group, or public tagsreferencing a particular section of the text.Annotation Button: Allows logged in users to create personal, private group, or publicannotations referencing a particular section of the text.Highlight Button: Allows logged in users to highlight specific passages of the text. Userscan remove highlighting by re-selecting a portion of the text that has been highlighted, andclicking on the Highlight button.Page Count: Shows the total number of pages contained within the document. Users can

jump to a page by typing a page number into the text box.Show/Hide Icon: Allows logged in users to show or hide all user-generated contentassociated with a document.Expand Button: Allows users to view a documents text in full -screen (Figure 20).

Figure 20

3.3.4 Document Info PanelThe Document Info Panel displays all bibliographic information associated with an opendocument (Figure 21). It also permits users to review user-generated content such as tags,annotations, bookmarks, and discussions related to the open document.


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Figure 21

The different sections of the document info panel are:

Keyword Search Box: Allows users to conduct a full-text keyword search of an opendocuments content, including text and annotations. Conduct a keyword search by enteringa term into the textbox at the top of the document info panel. Document Details: Displays a documents bibliographic information, including title,author, date, archival ID number, etc.User Ratings: Displays a documents collective user rating, from one to five stars.Tags: Displays personal, private group, and public tags associated with an open document.Users can edit or delete their own personal, private group, or public tags, but they cannotedit or delete private group or public tags created by other users.Annotations: Displays personal, private group, and public annotations associated with anopen document. Users can edit or delete their own personal, private group, or publicannotations, but they cannot edit or delete private group or public annotations created by

other users. Users can also report inappropriate annotations to the SDA Administrator byclicking on the R eport button.

NOTE: Certain annotations will contain a green SDA Editor Approved icon abovetheir content. These annotations were either written or approved by one of the

archives editorial board members.


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Bookmarks: Displays personal and public bookmarks associated with an open document.Users can edit or delete their own personal bookmarks, but they cannot edit or delete public

bookmarks created by the SDA Editorial staff. Users can share personal bookmarks byclicking on the chain icon an d copying the accompanying URL. Please note that onlySDA Editorial Board members can create public bookmarks.

NOTE: Clicking on any bookmark, tag or annotation in the document info panel willtake the user directly to the relevant section of the document. Similarly, clicking on abookmark, tag or annotation icon in a texts margins will open that bookmark, tag or

annotation in the document info panel.

Discussions: Displays the three most recent discussion board threads related to a currentdocument. Click the Start D iscussion button to create a ne w thread referencing the opendocument.


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4.0 MySDA

MySDA is the sites center for personalized content and community interaction , and is accessible via theMySDA tab at the top of the screen.

4.1 MySDA Home

The MySDA homepage allows users to view notifications; access recently viewed documents; manage a personal library of saved documents, tags, annotations, and searches; and participate in discussion boards, public Research Interests, and Private Groups (Figure 22). See Section 2.1 for more informationon how to create a MySDA account.

Figure 22

4.2 Notifications

The Notifications area of MySDA displays updates from both administrators and fellow SDA members. Notifications cover such topics as additions to the digitized archive; new discussion topics for ResearchInterest and private group discussion threads; invitations to join new private groups; the addition of newdocuments to public or private group folders; site news and updates from the site admin; and other updates related to a users personal account and/or the general functionality of the site (Figure 22).


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Notifications are presented in a tabular view, and can be sorted by date or notification type (i.e. Forum,Group, Message).

Figure 22

4.3 Research Interests

Research Interests are thematically organized public groups that enable scholars to share documents and participate in discussions with other SDA members. Each Research Interest has a corresponding forumin which participating users can discuss relevant topics and documents. Users must join a ResearchInterest before they can participate in its forum.

Each Research Interest has its own group page. To access this page, click on the title of the relevantResearch Interest on the Research Interests home page . A Research Interest group page contains agroup description, recent discussions, recently shared documents, recent public annotations and tags, anda list of current members.

4.3.1 Joining a Research InterestAny user can join any Research Interest group. To join a research interest:

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the Community Pages tab in the left-hand navigation panel.3. Select Research Interests . 4. Click the Join button to the right of the appropriate Research Interest. (N.B. Users can

also join a Research Interest from that Research Interests group page. ) (Figure 23)


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Figure 23

4.3.2 Creating a New Research InterestAny user can create a new Research Interest. To create a new Research Interest:

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the Community Pages tab in the left-hand navigation panel.3. Select Research Interests . 4. Click on the Create New Research Interest button at the top of the Research Interests

homepage.5. Enter the group name and description, and click Create Group .

NOTE: A user cannot edit or delete a Research Interest once it has been created .

4.4 Private Groups

Private Groups represent a more selective, focused and member- specific subset of the SDAscommunity functionality. Anyone with a MySDA account can create a Private Group. The creator of aPrivate Group becomes that group s owner by default, and thus has the ability to define the name anddescription of the group; invite other MySDA users to the group; manage the groups folder permissions(i.e. Read/Write); remove users from the group; and designate a new owner of the group.

A list of all of the Private Groups to which a MySDA user has access is available via the MySDAhomepage, or by mousing over the MySDA tab at the top of the screen and clicking on Private Groups (Figure 24). This will indicate the name of each group; the number of members belonging to each group;the user s group status (i.e. Invited, Member, Owner); the users grou p options (i.e. Accept Invitation,Decline Invitation, Leave Group, Remove Group); and the date on which the user was invited to thegroup.


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Figure 24

Each Private Group has a corresponding forum in which participating users can discuss relevant

topics and documents. Users must joint a Private Group before they can participate in its forum.

4.4.1 Joining a Private GroupA user must first receive an invitation before she can join a Private Group. To join a PrivateGroup:

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the Community Pages tab in the left-hand navigation panel.3. Select Private Groups. 4. Click the Accept or Decline button in the Options column next to the group name

to which the user has been invited. (N.B. The user may also accept/decline a private

group invitation via the Notifications page.)

4.4.2 Creating a New Private GroupAny user can create a new Private Group. Once a user creates a Private Group she becomes theowner of the group. To create a new Private Group:

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the Community Pages tab in the left-hand navigation panel.3. Select Private Groups. 4. Click on the Create New Group button at the top of the Private Groups homepage.5. Enter the group name and description.6. Select the Member Folder Access. (N.B. Read Only means that all non -owner

members can only view documents in shared folders. Read/Write means that allnon-owner members can add and remove documents from shared folders.)

7. Enter the email addresses of the users whom you would like to invite to the group.(N.B. You can only invite users with currently existing MySDA accounts to joinPrivate Groups.)

8. Click Submit.


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NOTE: If a private group owner wants to leave a group, she must first designate a currentgroup member as the new owner. The owner can d o this by clicking on the Edit buttonon the Private Groups homepage, and then by clicking on Assign New Owner.

4.5 Discussion Forums

Discussion Forums allow users to communicate about specific documents, themes, and areas of interest.Each Discussion Forum consists of a set of topics related to the central theme of the forum. Each topichas a list of individual posts ordered chronologically from oldest to newest.

To access the Discussion Forums, select the MySDA tab at the top of the screen and click on AllDiscussions in the Discussion Boards section of the left -hand navigation panel. Users can also mouseover the MySDA tab at the top of the screen and click on Forums.

4.5.1 The Discussion Boards Page

The Discussion Boards homepage displays a list of current forums, sortable by title or number of topics (Figure 25). A list of recent topics is available on the right side of the screen. Navigate to aforum by scrolling through the Discussion Forum list using the Up and Down arrow buttons onthe bottom left-hand corner of the page. Users can conduct a keyword search of all forums,topics and posts by using the Search tool at the top of the page.

Figure 25

There are three types of discussion forums: General Forums, Private Group Forums, andResearch Interest Forums. General Forums appear on the top part of the Discussion Forums listand are not associated with any specific Research Interest. Any registered user can participate in


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or create a General Forum. To cr eate a General Forum, click on the Create New Forum , buttonand provide a name and description.

Each Research Interest Group and Private Group has a corresponding forum. A user must first belong to a Research Interest Group or Private Group before she can participate in its discussionforum.

4.5.2 Participating in a topic thread

Users can participate in a discussion topic by creating a post on a topic thread. To find a topic:

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the All Discussions tab or the Private Group Discussions in the left-hand

navigation panel.3. Select a Discussion Forum.4. Select a topic to display all of that topics posts.

To create a new a post, click on Reply to this topic and type a reply into the textbox. Click onLink to Document to attach a document from a personal, private group, or public folder to the

post. Finally, click on Post to add the reply to the topic thread. Users can delete their own posts, but they cannot delete posts created by other users. Users can also report inappropriate posts to the SDA administrator by clicking on the Report Post link in the bottom-right corner of each post (Figure 26).

Figure 26

4.5.3 Creating a new topic thread

1. Click on the MySDA tab at the top of the screen.2. Click on the All Discussions tab in the left-hand navigation panel.3. Select a Discussion Forum.4. Click on Start New Topic .

NOTE: When creating a new topic, a user must add a new topic title and opening message.


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4.6 Library

The MySDA Library enables users to save and share documents from within the archive. PersonalFolders enable users to view and manage documents they have saved for their own personal research.Private Groups Folders allow users to share documents with other members of related Private Groups.Public Folders allow users to share documents with other members of related Research Interest groups.To access the MySDA library, go to the MySDA homepage and click on the appropriate tab in the left-hand navigation panel.

4.6.1 Saving a document

Users can save a document to the MySDA library from the search page, browse page, or document viewer. To save a document from the search or browse page:

1.

Go to the search or browse page, and select the checkboxes next to the appropriatedocuments.2. Click on the Save button in the top toolbar.3. Select an existing personal, private group, or public folder to which to save the

documents. Users can also save the documents to a new personal folder by using theCreate new folder option.

4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the dialogue box.

To save a document from the Document Viewer:

1. Open a document in the Viewer and click the Save button in the document viewer

toolbar.2. Follow steps 3 and 4 as outlined above.

4.6.2 Managing and Sharing Documents in the MySDA Library

In the Library section of MySDA, users can create new folders, rename existing folders, createand edit folder descriptions, sort folders by various criteria, and delete individual folders (and thedocuments contained within).

Click on a personal, private group, or public folder title to view the list of documents contained

within (Figure 27). Clicking on the title of a document will open it in the viewer. Buttons at thetop of the folders screen allow u sers to export academic citations or user-generated annotationson selected documents; copy or move documents from one folder to another; or remove adocument from the current folder. Users can also adjust the view of the document list by usingthe View Options and Sor t by drop -down menus on the right side of the screen.

NOTE: Users cannot copy, move, or delete documents contained in a public folder. Usersmust have Read/Write access to copy, move or delete documents contained in a PrivateGroup.


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Figure 27

To share a saved document from a personal, private group, or public folder with another privategroup or publicfolder, go to the corresponding Private Group or Research Interest and click theShare Document button under the Recently Shared Documents header.

NOTE: Users must belong to a Private Group or Research Interest before they can share adocument with that groups folder.

4.6.3 Saved Searches

Users can access a list of saved searches via the Saved Searches tab in the Library section of theMySDA left-hand navigation panel. Users can sort these searches by name, criteria, or date of last usage. Users can also name or rename their searches vi a the Create button in the Search

Name column, and delete searches by clicking the Remove button.

4.7 Community Pages

Community Pages display information about individual users to the SDA community.

4.7.1 My ProfileThe My Profile page displays a users public profile, and is accessible via the MySDA left-handnavigation panel. The My Profile page displays basic biographical information (e.g. name, emailaddress, academic institution, about me, etc.) as well as site usage information (e.g. ResearchInterest groups to which a user belongs, public tags and annotations created by a user, etc...).

To edit the My Profile page:1. Click the Manage Profile button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.2. Click the Edit tab.


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Figure 29

Thank you for your interest in the Stalin Digital Archive. If you have any questions or concerns aboutthe User Manual, the website, or anything else related to the archive, please send an email to the SDASupport Team at [email protected].

SDA User Manual 782013 Updated

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Transcript of SDA User Manual 782013 Updated