1.

Troubleshooting 1: Can't find any images

NAS's collection of images is being digitised in phases and is targeted for completion in mid-1999. If you do not see a thumbnail image next to the caption, that means the image is not digitised yet. The process of data entry is faster than that of digitisation, hence at this moment you will see more captions which come without images than the complete photographic records. We decided to mount the incomplete records first because we wanted our users to know the existence of these records. Should users wish to view them, they can visit the Archives Reference Room at NAS. It is open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays and 9am to 1pm on Saturdays. NAS is located at 1 Canning Rise which is next to the Registry of Marriages.

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2.

Troubleshooting 2: Problems accessing POSTERS DB

POSTERS uses new web-based technology to bring you a user-friendly and interactive web site.

If you are accessing the Internet via a proxy server, that server may not be properly configured to recognise POSTERS as a legitimate web site. Hence, you may receive messages like "The requested URL could not be retrieved". Also, the Domain Name Server (DNS) may have assumed the wrong IP address for POSTERS. Please ask your network administrator for assistance.

If you are accessing the Internet from an intranet or private network, your network may be using a firewall. This is a security system in a web environment which controls and restricts information between the internet and your intranet or private network. A firewall that is set to block Java and ActiveX components may be wrongly configured to block JavaScript. Please notify your firewall administrator to rectify the situation as POSTERS requires the use of JavaScript.

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3.

How to Use: POSTERS DB Search

A.1 Various fields available for searching

1. Enter Query field

Search in the following fields: Caption and Subject.

e.g. Enter Query: Street or Scene
Returns articles which contain either 'Street' or 'Scene' in any of the fields.

e.g. Enter Query: minister and stock
Returns articles which contain both 'minister' and 'stock' in any of the fields.

e.g. Enter Query: Singapore or China and smoking
The 'and' condition will always take precedence to the 'or' condition. Adding brackets { eg (Singapore or China) and smoking } will have no effect to overwrite this precedence.

2. Date of picture

Search for articles from a specific date or year to another specific date or year.

e.g. From:1980 To: 1995
This returns articles between 1980 and 1995.

3. Thesaurus on/off

Thesaurus off
The program will only search article with the same word or words enter in the query field.

Thesaurus on
The program will search for articles with related words entered in the query field.


 

1. Sort By Field (Relevance, Publication Date)

Relevance
Results will be arranged such that the articles with the most number of matched words found will be first on the list and the remaining of the articles will be arranged in descending order according to the number of related words found.

Publication Date
Results will be arranged in descending order according to the publication date.

2. Max Display

This field determines the number of article titles to be displayed per page.

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4.

How to Use: Advanced Search

B.1 Caption.
Search for articles with certain keywords in the caption.

B.2 Subject.
For searching articles with a specific subject.
e.g. "community chest"

Select from an available list

 

1. Click the on the hyperlink "Search".
2. Select from the list of desired subjects.
3. Do this by clicking on the check boxes.
4. Clicking on the Selection Option button.
5. This selected word or words will be transfer to the subject field.
6. When two or more words are selected, a system boolean word 'or' will be inserted in between each word.
7. Result list return will contain articles that matches either one of the selected word in the subject field.

B.3 Date of Picture.
Search for articles from a specific date or year to another.

e.g. From:1980 To: 1995

B.4 Source.
Search for articles with the specified source of publication.

e.g. Asianweek

Selecting from available list of source name.
1. Click the on the hyperlink source
2. Select from the list of desired sources.
3. Do this by clicking on the check boxes.
4. The selected source names will be transfer to the subject field.
5. When two or more words are selected, a system boolean word 'or' will be inserted in between each word.
6. Result list return will contain articles that matches either one of the selected word in the subject field.

B.5 Access No.
Search for a specific picture by entering its access number in this field.

B.6 Image ID.
Search for a specific picture by entering its image ID in this field.

B.7 Negative ID.
Search for a specific picture by entering its negative ID in this field.

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5.

More Help on: Picture Details

Retrieving of picture details
1. To retrieve detai;s of one picture from the result list.
Click on the caption to view the picture details.
To return to the result list, click on the back icon.

2. To retrieve details of two or more picture.
Click on the check boxes to select the picture detail to be view.
After the selections have been made, click the Detail button at the bottom of the page.
Based on the selections, their detail are displayed one after the other.
To return to the result list, click on the back icon.

Viewing of the image
Click on the "Otherwise to view image" hyperlink.

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6.

More Help on: Picture Image

Retrieving the image
Click on the thumbnail located besides the caption to view the image. To return to the result list click on the back icon.

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