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Refined Searching by Data Fields in Luna Insight

Use this method when you know specific details about the image you’re looking for. It’s especially useful for searching object types or styles and periods. Search by data fields to view all images of houses, for example, but not paintings that depict houses; to view all African or East Asian art, not limited to specific cultures; or to view all art from the Edo or Archaic periods, without Late, Middle or Early subdivisions.

To Search by Data Fields:
After you have opened Luna Insight, select search in the menu on the far left. Then, click by data fields. Next, choose the field (such as Object Type, Style Period, Subject Heading, Agent (Artist), etc.) that you want to search.

After you select a field, the relation menu pops up. This is where you choose how to search. Selecting equals will produce a list of terms to choose from. Contains is a keyword search limited to the field of your choosing.

Next, the value box becomes visible. Type in a search term and click search.

Alternately, you can add additional search terms before clicking search. Click and or or beneath the value box. You will return to the Search by Data Fields field menu. Repeat the steps above to further refine your search.

Examples:

  1. To view all images of houses, but not art work that depicts houses, select ObjectTypes in the field menu. Select contains. Type House in the value box. Click search.
  2. To view all East Asian art, select StylePeriod in the field menu. Select contains. Type East Asian in the value box. Click search.
  3. To view all art from the Archaic period, select StylePeriod in the field menu. Select contains from the relation menu. Type Archaic in the value box. Click search.

Contact the VRC to learn more about how to find exactly what you’re looking for.

By mmacken

twitter: meganmacken

Director, Visual Resources Center and Digital Media Archive, Division of the Humanities, The University of Chicago.

My academic background ranges from classics and comparative literature to modern art and architectural history, and so, naturally, I am a librarian. I have graduate degrees in art history and library science, manage digital image and audio collections for the Division of the Humanities, and am always eager to collaborate across disciplines, universities, and even continents! I'm interested in exploring the library's role in Digital Humanities, not just as an archive for born-digital objects but as a locus for Digital Humanities centers. At THATCamp I'm excited to find out how others are visualizing data, especially to facilitate creative research and teaching in art and architectural history and film studies. How can visual data (still images, film, 3D models, etc) move beyond illustration and become a source for research? What kind of creative information retrieval interfaces do we need to do this? We've got metadata...let's make it work!