Evaluating Cultural Resource Significance: Implementation Tools (2005)

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C.4-1 APPENDIX C.4 ECREL USER’S GUIDE Using the ECREL Search Features Welcome to the Electronic Cultural Resource Evaluation Library (ECREL) Search Tool. This tool allows you to search for electronic copies of a wide variety of documents used for evaluating the National Register eligibility of properties. There are three types of searches you may perform: 1. Content Search – search for a word or phrase contained in the document. 2. Metadata Search – search by title, author, publication date, area of significance (from National Register Bulletin 16A), repository, geographic location, and/or keyword. 3. Combined Search – use the search fields alone or in combination. For example, you may search by author, by author and area of significance (AOS), or by author, AOS, and a word or phrase. Click on a search type above or in the Table of Contents to learn more about that type.

C.4-2 Content Search Content searching uses the Verity search engine to find a word or phrase in a published document. For example, enter the word fishing in the context search box and click the search button. A list of all documents containing the word fishing will be displayed. The list may include some documents that are clearly related to fishing, and others that may not be so obviously related. If the phrase fishing industry is entered, a much shorter list of results is returned. This type of search is commonly used for Internet searches. It is very powerful because it does not require prior categorization and allows for greater searching flexibility than metadata searching.

C.4-3 Combined Search A combination of metadata and content searching can be used. For example, a content search on Civil War will yield all documents containing that phrase. If the Mid Atlantic region is also included in the search, only documents associated with that region and also containing the phrase Civil War will be returned. Whenever more than one search criterion is used, the syntax is: value1 AND value2 AND . . . In other words, only documents that meet all the specified criteria are retrieved. In general, the more criteria specified, the fewer the results.

C.4-4 Definitions Title Enter the title of document, usually the descriptive name assigned by the author. Author The original authors of the document. Publication Date Date the document was published. If the document is a Multiple Property or other National Register nomination form, it is the date the form was written. Area of Significance Up to five areas of significance (from National Register Bulletin 16A) that are associat ed with the properties discussed in this document. Repository Usually, the name of the agency that is the primary repository for the document. Some documents in ECREL were captured by downloading from websites. In this case, the Repository name is the URL for the document source. Region Geographic region in the United States as defined by the National Park Service. County If the document is associated with a particular county, the name of the county is recorded here. May be blank. State The state with which the document is most closely associated; if the document is not associated with a particular state, this field may be blank. City If the document is associated with a particular city, the name of the city is recorded here. May be blank. Document Type Documents are classified into one of the following document types: Historic Contents, Multiple Property Submission, National Register Nomination, and Administrative Record. Keyword Keywords for a document may be assigned to ensure that properties discussed in the document will be linked with specific associations, events, time periods, attributes, etc. Generally, keywords are used only if they are not already captured elsewhere (e.g., Area of Significance), or do not appear in the document content.

Metadata Search What are metadata? Metadata are “data about data.” In ECREL’s case, they are data about documents and include things like author and title. When documents were entered in ECREL, metadata were defined for them. You may use any one or combinations of the following metadata attributes to search for documents: Title Enter a document title or part of a title. If you are not sure of the title, try entering one word from the title. For example, entering ‘village’ in the title search will return “The Culebra River Villages of Costilla County Colorado” as well as “MD Suburbanization – Colonial Village.” Author Enter one or more names. As with title, a partial name (e.g., Brown) will work. Publication Date You have three search options. First enter a date — you may enter a year (e.g., 1995) or a specific date (e.g., 5/3/1995) — then select one of the following: • EQUALS searches for documents with the exact publication date you specified; • GREATER THAN OR EQUAL searches for documents published on or after the date specified; • LESS THAN OR EQUAL searches for documents published before or on the date specified. Area of Significance (from National Register Bulletin 16A) You may select one or more areas of significance. Use the scroll bar to view the entire list. Region, State, County You may select one value only for each of these. City You may type in the name of a specific city. C.4-5

Document Type You may select one document type. Keyword Keywords have been assigned for some documents. View the list to see keywords currently in use, and then type one or more separated by commas in the box. (Note: Content searching is usually a more effective method than keyword searching.) C.4-6