Searching Tips
Hello Puzzle Heads!
This may be your first time exploring a digital library or encountering metadata fields and we do not want you to feel like you are solving a puzzle when navigating PuzzleEd's site. Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data or, in PuzzleEd's case, a 3D puzzle. Simply put, metadata is each piece of information describing a puzzle that will help you, as the user, explore the digital library more comfortably.
Typically, when people think of metadata they think of the title or author of the book. When you know the title or author it is very easy to find that book in a database or at the library. When using metadata to describe 3D objects it can become more complicated if metadata fields are not explained. Let us help!
The PuzzleEd Digital Library uses the Dublin Core Metadata Set to describe 3D puzzles. Several metadata fields are consistently listed in the item records. Below is a brief description of each:
Title: The title of an object given by the creator or publisher.
Subject: The subject describes the difficulty level of each puzzle - Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, or Fidget. Fidget puzzles are puzzles that don't necessarily have a solution but are fun to play with.
Description: The description gives the colors and materials used to create each puzzle. This field also gives a brief history and fun facts if known.
Creator: a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. The person who originally invented the puzzle.
Source: Since the digital library does not hold physical objects the source field will provide the dimensions of the physical object featured in each picture. This will allow you to imagine how big that object really is. PuzzleEd will list dimensions as length by width by height first in centimeters (cm) and then in inches (in). Some puzzles may have multiple dimensions listed depending if the solved version is different than the unsolved version.
Publisher: The publisher is the person or manufacturer who created the specific puzzle pictured. This can be different than the creator because sometimes there are variations in color or style of a puzzle but the solving concept is the same.
Date: This field gives the year that the puzzle was originally invented.
Contributor: For PuzzleEd the contributor field gives the name of the person who took the photograph and, if different, the name of the person who entered the metadata. The contributor directly relates to the Rights field, listed below.
Rights: This field is very important if you decide to download and share the images found in the PuzzleEd Digitial Library. The CC BY-NC-ND license allows you to download the images and share the images as long as you credit the person who took the photos. This license does not allow for the images to be modified or used commercially.
Type: Because all objects in this digital library are 3D puzzles they will be listed as Physical Objects.
Identifier: This field will give the name of each image displayed in an item's record. If you hover your mouse over an image you will see the corresponding identifier.
Other metadata you will find in each record:
Collection: Each puzzle will fall under only one collection - Rotating Puzzles, Fidget Puzzles, Electronic Puzzles, or Puzzles with Pieces. Sometimes you may think a puzzle should be in multiple collections but PuzzleEd's curators chose the one collection that fit best, such as the Go Cube being both a puzzle that rotates and an electronic puzzle. For PuzzleEd it was most important to describe this as an Electronic Puzzle because its purpose is to be interactive and to use an app to connect with players around the world. Fidget Puzzles are puzzles that do not necessarily have a solution but are still fun to fidget with. Rotating Puzzles are puzzles that need to be rotated or twisted to be solved. Puzzles with Pieces are puzzles that have multiple pieces that need to be fit together to solve.
Tags: Each puzzle will have tags (keywords) that represent common search terms for that particular puzzle. You can browse by tags by clicking Browse Items and then Browse by Tag. If you think we have missed any tags please let us know. Contact PuzzleEd
Citation: This is a helpful set of metadata that can be used if you are referencing a particular puzzle from the PuzzleEd Digital Library.
****Below are tips on how to explore, discover, and find items in the PuzzleEd Digital Library****
DISCOVER:
If you feel like you want to discover new puzzles we recommend the Browse Items or Browse Collections options.
* In Browse Items it defaults to Browse All and simply shows you all items in the digital library but you can also Browse by Tag. There is a Search Items option but we will go further into that below.
- The Browse by Tag option will provide a list of clickable tags (keywords) that correspond to puzzles in the digital library. This option would be perfect if you wanted to see a group of puzzles but were not sure where to start.
- Both Browse All and Browse by Tag will allow you to sort the puzzles alphabetically by Title or Creator or chronologically by the Date Added so puzzles added more recently to the library will be featured at the top of the list.
* In Browse Collections you can view items in groups based on the type of puzzle: Puzzles with Pieces, Electronic Puzzles, Fidget Puzzles, or Rotating Puzzles. More information about collections can be found below.
SEARCH:
If you feel like you want to find a puzzle based on terms you already know then we recommend clicking on the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner to search. This option will pull up results that have a match for the searched term in their record. For instance, if you search "Cube" then all puzzles that use the term "cube" in their record or tags will be located. This option can be fun but if you feel like you are getting results that don't make sense then you may want to try the Search Items option.
Search Items can be found under Browse Items. Once you navigate to the Search Items database you will have several options. This is where we want to give a quick disclaimer that we are using Omeka to power this digital library and not all features on the site are customizable. Many of the fields found in this section will not make sense or prove useful when narrowing searches so we will cover only the fields we think are important.
- Search for Keywords allows you to search terms as you would in any search field.
- Narrow by Specific Fields will allow you to search a term and narrow where you want that term to appear in the record. For instance, if you want to search "Cube" but narrow it to be part of the official puzzle name then you would narrow by "Title" choose "Contains" and then add "Cube" to the field to the right before searching. Then only puzzles with "Cube" in the title will be located.
Search specifications can be further determined if you wanted to "add a field" to search. For instance, if you wanted to search for puzzles that have "Cube" in the Title OR Description then you are able to "add a field" and select both the Title field and Description field to be searched for the term "Cube" (Note: if you choose Title AND Description then only puzzles that feature the term "Cube" in both places will be located). This section allows you, as the user, to get creative so treat it as a puzzle and play around!
- Search By Collection will allow you to narrow results by collection.