The Harper College Archives collects, preserves, exhibits, and provides access to materials of enduring value that document the development, growth and operation of Harper College and the activities of the diverse College community.
The Archives is working to make many collections digitally available. Examples of these digital items include documents, photographs, videos, student publications, exhibits, and more. Please see the below databases to begin your research.
Quick Links:
Tips & Tricks- How to Use the Digital Archives
Getting to the Digital Archives
Click the "Harper College Digital Archive" link above under Digital Collections.
Click the blue “Browse Archive” button on the top left of the website to start.
Then click on the title folder you want to view next, such as “College Catalogs” or “Athletic Department” folders to start viewing digital materials from these digital collections.
Navigating the Folders
Clicking any of the gray square icons next to the “Sort by Title” drop down will change the category view to either “List,” “Table,” or “Tile.” The “Tile” view includes a thumbnail preview image of assets and folders within each collection category.
Click on a folder title to view the materials in that folder.
You can also navigate the folders by clicking on the folder you want to go to in the file path, which is on the top of the page, in navy blue text, with arrows “>” between the names of folders nested within each other. For example, “Browse Archive > The Harbinger > Volume 03 1969-1970” is the file path for the specific asset. Clicking on any of the individual titles will take you back to that previous folder.
Searching
Use the blue search bar button “Archive” to search by keywords, ex. “nursing students” or “cookout”.
If you want to search materials within a specific folder, navigate to that folder and open it, then enter keywords in the blue “Folder” search bar instead of the blue “Archive” search bar.
Search results will show individual files or “assets,” not folders.
Viewing Search Results
Search results will appear in a list format, but you can change the way your search results appear by clicking on the icons next to the sorting dropdown as above with “Navigating the Folders.” The options are the same, “List,” “Table,” or “Tile.”
Different views will give you more or less information about folders and items for each result.
Filtering
Filtering is a way to limit the search results you get to include only a certain type of material.
You can filter search results by clicking on the blue “Filter” button next to the archives search bar. This allows you to search by item type or creation date.
To filter by item type, type “image” (for photographs), “text” (for materials that are primarily text-based), or “moving image” (for videos).
If filtering by creation date, use the date structure YYYY-MM-DD. If you don’t see any results for a specific date, try searching for YYYY-MM or YYYY. If you want to see all of the materials from a specific year, you may have better success searching this year in the search box, rather than using the filter option.
If you have already searched for something but want to add a certain filter, choose the filter and key word and click the blue “add” button to the right of the filter search bar.
Sorting
Refining
Refining is a way to limit the displayed results of a search after the search is conducted.
You can refine your search results by using the “refine your selection” column to the left of the results. Options are to refine by date or subject.
Date options are not grouped together by year or sorted chronologically, instead they are listed as they have been assigned to folders and files within the metadata. Metadata updates are ongoing.
Subjects assigned to folders and files are not separated to individual subjects, so there may be multiple subjects bundled together in the refine section.
Adapted from the "Tips and Tricks" section of the Roxbury Community College Digital Archives.