Quick Guide to ARTstor
ARTstor is a web-based tool which allows one to search for, view, and present
high quality images of art, architecture and design. Presentations may be made
directly from the online ARTstor environment, or ARTstor images may be combined
with images from other sources for offline presentation with ATRstor's Offline
Image Viewer software, which needs not be connected to a network to show images.
This guide is a quick tour through the basic steps needed to set up,
search, and use images, both in the online and offline environments. The
screenshots are taken from a Macintosh; the windows version may look slightly
different - but the functionality is the same. As with all software, practice
makes perfect. Spending time exploring the collections of images and methods of
presenting them within the ARTstor software will pay off with ease of use and
high-quality images.
The main web address for the ARTstor homepage is http://www.artstor.org/. This is where you enter the ARTstor environment, which is run through your web browser.
Useful web addresses:
The following guide is composed of screenshots showing views of the program and it's windows. Your experience may be different, depending on your screen size, operating system, and web browser choice.
To start with ARTstor, go to the homepage - http://www.artstor.org/.
Here you can read about the artstor project, the collections available, and system requirements.
Clicking on "Search and browse for images" will start the ARTstor application, which is run through Java (an application environment). The ARTstor application uses your web browser as an interface, so do not be alarmed when it re-sizes your browser window. Make sure you do not have any ad-blocking or pop-up blocking programs enabled - they may prevent ARTstor from working properly.
The main ARTstor screen is shown below. Here all the main features of the
program are available: registration, collection descriptions, searching,
browsing, image group management, and image tools.
Before using ARTstor for the first time, you should register, which consists
of entering an email address and password. This allows for full functionality of
the software.
After registering, Logon to ARTstor, so that you have full functionality of
the software.
After you have logged on, you may email The UCB library ARTstor contact, Kathryn Wayne, to
get a username and password for full instructor priviledges.
The ARTstor software allows users to search for, view, and present images
from different collections. After finding images, you may save these images into
what ARTstor calls an "Image Group", which may be accessed in the future and
displayed as a slideshow or a course image set.
Please note that the
ARTstor software does not allow for downloading of large (greater than 400
pixels on the longest side) images. The large high-quality images in ARTstor can
only be viewed from within the ARTstor program or by using the Offline Image
Viewer. The "Offline Image
Viewer", or "OIV", allows you to combine high resoloution ARTstor images
with images you may have on your computer (such as SPIRO images or personal
photographs) and present them as a slideshow-type presentation.
All use of images begins with a search:
A keyword search searches all the
data fields related to images in the collection for your search terms. This is
the easiest search method but may result in a large set of images as a
result.
Once a seach has been made, the results are shown in a "lightbox" type
format.
You may view larger images (which appear in a new window) by double clicking
on them.
Images may be manipulated by clicking to zoom in on them.
Images may be manipulated with the toolbar that appears along the bottom of
every image.
Image groups are a way to save selected images for retrieval later. They can be images meant for a lecture, for downloading to use in the Offline Image Viewer (OIV), or for study purposes.
To create an image group, use the pull-down menu to create a new group and
give it a name.
To add images to an image group, you must have searched for and found some
images you like. Then "select" them by clicking on them once until they have a
highlighted border.
Then save your selected images to an image group using the command in the
drop-down menu.
After saving images to an image group, you can open the group at any time and
work within it. An image group works much like a group of slides on a lightbox -
you can move them around to change their order, view them individually, or view
them in sequence like a slide show.
Once you have created image groups, you can treat them as lectures and project them if your computer is connected to a digital projector. If you would like to add your own personal images to an image group, you must use ARTstor's "Offline Image Viewer" to view and present your image groups.
The offline image viewer allows you to do two things: to download image
groups from ARTstor and use them in an offline environment, and to allow you to
add images from sources other than ARTstor to a presentation created in ARTstor.
With the Offline Image Viewer, or OIV, you can create an image group with
ARTstor images, add personal image or images from other resources, and present
them without the need for a network connection.
After downloading the Offline Image Viewer Software, you can download saved
image groups, or upload local images.
This has been a brief overview of the ARTstor software. Please explore and
use it, and let us know what you think!
Feel free to contact us here at
the Architecture Visual Resources Library with any questions you might have.
| Room: | 494 Wurster Hall |
| Phone: | 510.642.3439 |
| Fax: | 510.642.8655 |
| Mail: | 232 Wurster Hall -
MC#1800 University of California Berkeley, CA 94720-1800 |
Created by Jason Miller. Copyright University of California Regents. Last Updated May 1, 2005.