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PANDAS Manual


Gathering Titles

You can gather a site immediately and you can also set a schedule to gather a site either at regular intervals (e.g. monthly, quarterly, annual) or on dates that you specify.

Before gathering a title you should ensure that the basic management details for the title are up-to-date. For example, if you are about to archive a title its Status should be set at "National Preservation" and the Standing should be set at "current".

Procedures covered in this section include:

Basic Procedure for Gathering a Title Immediately

  1. Search for the title you wish to gather
  2. Click on the title to go to the Title - Management screen
  3. Click on Gather from the Menu Bar. You will be taken to the Title - Gather screen in which there are tabs to take you to various forms (i.e. Basic, Options, Advanced and Notes). See screen layout
  4. If the title you wish to gather requires that you specify filters or other functions these need to be set and saved before you gather the title. See instructions below
  5. If the title you wish to gather does not require filters or other functions click on the Gather Now button
  6. A message will display saying that the title has been sent for gathering giving you the option to go to the Gather Queue to view the progress of the gathering

High Priority Gatherings

Sometimes you may need to set a high priority gathering, for example when gathering election campaign sites in order to ensure that they are captured if you think they may disappear suddenly. The high priority option places your gather request at the head of the gather queue so that it will begin gathering when the gatherer has the next free slot. The high priority option should only be used when absolutely necessary. To set a high priority gather click on the High Priority tick box before clicking the Gather Now button.

Title - Gather Screen

Setting a Gathering Schedule

  1. Search for the title you wish to set a schedule for
  2. Click on the title to go to the Title - Management screen
  3. Select Gather from the Menu Bar
  4. Select the gather method from the Gather Method drop-down box. For sites that are to be automatically downloaded from the Internet this will be the option "gathered"
  5. Select the schedule you want from the Schedule drop-down box.
  6. Set the date for the gathering schedule to begin in the Start Date boxes. NB: The start date for a scheduled gathering must be later than today's date in order for the schedule to be set
  7. Set gathering filters if necessary. See instructions below
  8. Click the Finish button

Setting Specific Dates for Gathering

  1. Search from the title you wish to set a schedule for
  2. Click on the title to go to the Title - Management screen
  3. Select Gather from the Menu Bar
  4. Select the gather method from the Gather Method drop-down box. For sites that are to be automatically downloaded from the Internet this will be the option "gathered"
  5. Select the "Date List" option from the Schedule drop-down box.
  6. Set the specific date on which you wish to gather a title by entering it in the Add Date boxes then click the Add Date button. The date will be added to the Date List box
  7. Repeat the process for further dates on which you wish the title to be gathered. NB: You can remove any dates you have added by highlighting the date in the Date List box and clicking the Remove Date button
  8. Set gathering filters if necessary. See instructions below
  9. Click the Finish button

Gathering Filters

To specify gathering filters click on the Options tab on the Title - Gather screen. This will display a screen (see below) that allows you to add URL filters, passwords, additional URLs etc.

NB: If you want to set gathering filters for a site that you want to gather immediately (i.e. using the Gather Now button), you must firstly set a gathering schedule (e.g. "Never"), create the filters and finish (so that you go back to the Title - Management screen). This process saves the filters. You can then go back into the Title - Gather screen and and activate the Gather Now option.

To create a filter:

  1. Click on the Create Filter button and a pop-up window (see below) will appear
  2. Select a filter option from the drop-down box labelled Choose A Rule
  3. Enter the text appropriate to the chosen URL rule in the Enter Keyword box
  4. Click the Inc. Link(s) button if you want the the filter to include the links you have specified in the gathering; or click the Exc. Link(s) button if you want the filter to exclude the links you have specified from the gathering
  5. Repeat steps 2 to 4 to add more filters
  6. The filter rules will appear in the Filter List box.
  7. Click the Finish button on the pop-up window
  8. Click the Finish button on the Title - Gather screen
  9. See here for more information on filters.

Choose A Rule drop-down box options

 

Gathering publisher supplied files

These instructions refer specifically to those files typically supplied as an email attachment (not whole sites supplied by FTP. Often such email supplied files are in PDF format). These files need to be gathered into PANDAS in order for them to be processed and archived.

When a file is supplied by email you should:

  1. Save the file to your PC's c: drive (e.g. in the My Downloaded Files folder)
  2. Find the title in PANDAS and go to the Title - Gather screen
  3. From the drop down box for Gather Method select the "Publisher Supplied - email" option
  4. Note that the Title - Gather screen changes (see below)
  5. Choose a gather schedule from the Schedule drop down box
  6. Click Finish. (This will save the changes made in points 3 and 5. You only need to do this the first time you set up the gather method and schedule)
  7. Go back into the Title - Gather screen
  8. Click on the Browse button to locate the file you saved to your PC
  9. Click on the Open button when you have located the file you wish to gather (on the Windows Explorer window) to add the file to PANDAS
  10. Click the Set File button
  11. Check that the default Mime type is correct (and change it if necessary)
  12. Click the Finish button
  13. You will get a message saying that and instance has been added and that you should now process the instance
  14. Click the Finish button again
  15. Proceed with processing and archiving as for other gathered instances

NB: If you have more than one file to gather on any given day for the same title you should use the procedures detailed above only for the first file. You should use the Add File facility on the Title - Process screen to add other files to the instance already created by gathering the initial file.

Title - Gather Screen for publisher supplied gather method

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Last updated 29 August 2001

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