Example Workflows

Forum is a media management system that allows you to catalog, manage, and share your digital collections locally or broadly. You can upload your images, video, audio, and documents and add descriptive metadata to make your content searchable. The content you catalog can be published and shared with your institution, made openly available as a public collection, and online exhibitions through Omeka. Content can also be harvested from our OAI-PMH server to be used in a library discovery system or in another local discovery layer.

Basic Concepts

• Project: A project is the top-level organizational unit in through which metadata schema are defined and items are managed. Projects are also where publishing to end-user collections is setup. Forum can contain multiple projects. Access to projects can be restricted on a user by user basis. For example a student cataloger may only have access to a one project but a visual resources curator may have access to multiple projects.
• Fields: Project fields are fully customizable through the administrative tools. Fields can be set up to allow free-text entries, controlled list values, numeric values, or they can be linked to authorities like Getty’s Art & Architecture Thesaurus. Once established, the fields contain the data which describes your content and makes it searchable and retrievable to end users. Field access can be restricted to certain users and restrictions can be placed on how users may enter data in a field.
• Record: A record presents the metadata values in each project field for an item. A single record can be linked to media files.
• Media: A media file is the image, audio, video, or document file that represents the item being described in the record to which it is attached. The storage utilized for a project is calculated based on the size of the media files uploaded to that project. Derivatives are automatically created for media files to be used throughout the system, (thumbnails, for example, are used in the grid view in the item panel). Derivatives are not included in the calculation of your storage.
• Item: An item refers to the media files and corresponding metadata presented together as a representation of a work or object. Items are viewable in the item panel when you select a project, and are filterable, searchable, editable and can be deleted or suppressed from publishing environments.
• Set: A set is a manual group that allows you to organize items within a project. Personal sets are viewable only by you, though the content within the set may be viewable by others. Administrators can see all sets in a project. Shared sets are visible to all users that have access to the project. Deleting items within a set will remove them only from the set and not from the project. Items can belong to multiple sets, and including an item in a set does not remove it from the entire project view.

Cataloging Workflows

The most standard cataloging workflow is as follows:

1. Upload a media file.
2. Edit the new item record to add descriptive data and save.
3. Publish to a target for end users to discover the content.

Other, more complex workflows may vary based on your cataloging objectives. Follow these suggested workflows to find what works best for you.

Workflow scenario: Creating new records with identical data in one or more fields

1. Upload a selection of media files in batch that will contain primarily identical descriptive data.
2. Select the newly created items in the item panel and edit them.
3. In the field(s) where the data is identical, enter the value(s).
4. Save and close the items.
5. Publish to a target for end users to discover the content.

Workflow scenario: Using master record to apply identical descriptive data in one or more fields

1. Upload a media file, OR create a new, blank record.
2. Open the record to the edit tab and enter descriptive metadata.
3. Save the record and then Set as Master Record.
4. Return to the project tab and upload several related media files that contain identical descriptive data.
5. Select the newly created items in the item panel and open to the bulk edit tab.
6. In the field(s) where the data is identical, place your cursor and use the keyboard shortcut Control+D (or Command+D for Mac) to paste the value(s) for the selected field as copied from the Master Record.
7. Repeat for any relevant fields, OR place your cursor in any field and use the keyboard shortcut Control+E (or Command+E for Mac) to paste all fields copied from the Master Record, OR use the Options menu to choose Paste from Master.
8. Save the items and publish for end users to discover.

Workflow scenario: Using Excel to migrate from your institution’s previous system

Using an Excel export of data from another system, you can modify the exported spreadsheet to align with your Forum fields for easy importing of data first, followed by uploading of the media files to match.

1. Create an Excel template of your Forum project.
2. Use the headers from your template spreadsheet to replace the headers of the Excel spreadsheet you exported from the local system, this is the map for your data when it enters Forum. (Note that column order is not significant.)
3. Enter NEW in the SSID column for each row.
4. Include exact filenames of the corresponding media files you will upload.
5. Perform a clean-up of data as needed using Excel’s many functionalities.
6. Incorporate linked vocabularies in the data wherever possible (Excel and Linked Fields).
7. Save a copy of the spreadsheet, so you don’t overwrite the original document.
8. Import this modified spreadsheet into your Forum project.
9. Upload the corresponding media files and watch the system sync the data records with the media files.
10. Perform additional clean-up in Forum and save the changes.
11. Publish the records for end users to discover.

Project Building Workflow

The workflow for building projects in Forum Admin is relatively standard, but there may be variations as each project requires different metadata schemas, linked vocabularies, etc.

The most standard of project building workflows is as follows:

1. In Forum select the Actions menu and then New. Enter your new project's name and select a template option. Select Create. 
2. Select Create. Once the new project is created, navigate to the Fields tab.
3. Add, edit, or delete fields to meet your custom metadata schema.
4. Change field types and labels, add linked vocabularies, lists, or default values.
5. When satisfied with the fields, navigate to the Cataloging Forms tab.
6. Add a new unique cataloging form, and then add all the fields you would like available in this screen.
7. When satisfied with the set-up of cataloging forms, navigate to the Targets tab.
8. Add a new target for publishing your items. Target types include institutional collections for local discovery, open collections, Omeka for online exhibit building, and OAI for harvesting to other discovery layers (contact forumsupport@jstor.org to set up an OAI target).
9. Establish the target’s settings, including download settings for images, collection description, and representative image.
10. Select the new target and select Map Project Fields to define the data’s display when items are published.
11. When satisfied with adding targets, navigate to the User Permissions tab.
12. Add new users as project administrators or catalogers, always adding yourself as an administrator. To establish catalogers, grant them access to specific cataloging form, publishing targets (or no targets if preferred) and set up a base filter.
13. When satisfied with the permissions, select your username in the top right and then Cataloging Tools to review your new project as catalogers would see it.
14. Continue to make changes to the project in Forum Admin until you feel it is ready for adding content and publishing.

Sharing through Publishing

You can easily share as much content as you like, through multiple publishing options. You can publish directly to an institutional collection where only recognized users can access your content, or you can publish your content as an open collection or an Omeka exhibition. Options for media use and access vary depending on which environment to which you publish.