1. How to search among singular book artifacts?
Once you get to the Book Artifacts page, you get the opportunity to use filtering tools by numerous parameters, search by word or part of a word. For example, to search for all artifacts in German and French, you must select these languages in the appropriate filter.
To search for a word or a part of a word, you need to type a search set of characters in the “search for a word” field. Let’s say you want to find all the book artifacts from the city of “Vilno” – to do it you should search indicated spelling in the “search by word” field. The second option is to find the modern name of the city – “Vilnius” in the “Place of publication / creation” filter field. When the first search option finds the artifacts issued specifically from “Vilno”, the second search option will find all the artifacts that were published in the territory of modern Vilnius without reference to time.
Each book artifact has three types of display: short, intermediate and full. The short display provides the ability to quickly view the title and image of the artifact. If you are interested in the artifact but you are not sure yet if this is really what you were looking for, you can click on the book monument. You will see an intermediate display: the most important features of the book artifact, thanks to which the artifacts can be compared with one another. To view the full information, you can click “More” in the intermediate display.
At the bottom of the search results page there are controls that let you quickly navigate to the following items. To go to the next or previous pages with results, you can enter the required number in the pagination field.
A detailed view of the book artifact contains all the important information about such artifact. There is a possibility of detailed view for images/photographs. Some information fields are highlighted with links that provide an opportunity to quickly jump to the search results for similar book artifacts. For example, if you want to find all the artifacts that have a watermark, you can click on the corresponding link in the description. To return to the previous search parameters, click “Go to catalog”.
2. How to search among book artifacts-collections and collection holders?
The web portal State Register of Book Artifacts provides an opportunity to view the registered book artifacts-collections, collection holders of book artifacts, as well as the artifacts that belong to them. In a specific section, you can search for a word or part of a word in the corresponding field – the search will be carried out over the entire content of each collection.
On the page of a particular collection, textual information about this collection and storage location are provided. If you want to view individual book artifacts of Belarus that form part or belong to this collection, you must click on “Go to the artifact”. After that, you will go to the “Book Artifacts” section with the necessary parameters highlighted in the filters.
3. How to register your book artifact in the register?
To add a book artifact to the state register, first on the main page of the web portal, you must click on one of the buttons, “Add your book artifact to the register” or “I have a book artifact”. All fields on the page must be filled in. Mandatory fields are marked with “*”. Other fields are optional, but the more fields are filled in, the more reliable information will be included in the register. Therefore, we recommend that you consistently and completely enter all known information.
When submitting an application, you can choose the type of application: a book artifact-collection, a singular book artifact and a collection holder of book artifacts. The list of fields required for filling depends on this choice. When submitting a new book artifact, we recommend that you first submit an application for the holder of a book artifact and a certain collection – and only then proceed directly to the application for a singular book artifact.
During the application process, some of the fields will provide options:
• easy selection among the results;
• multiple choice of results;
• search through a long list of results;
• simple text input;
• yes / no switches;
• uploading images.
If there are errors in the application, the portal will report this using the validation system: red signatures under the fields with erroneous data. Upon successful submission of the application, you will receive a corresponding congratulation message. Responsible administrators of the National Library of Belarus will consider your application and will soon give an answer on the advisability of including your book artifacts into the State Register of Book Artifacts of the Republic of Belarus.
The section “About the Register” contains more detailed instructions on the register usage together with other official documents.