OASIS 2.2 Release Notes (6/26/2006)

Changes in this release include:

• Migration to EAD 2002. All OASIS finding aids have been converted to version 2002 of the EAD document type definition (DTD). Future finding aids deposited to OASIS must conform to the 2002 DTD.
• Changes to the OASIS user comment process. The comment form has been modified to collect some additional address and affiliation information that are useful to the repositories. On full finding aid display, the comment link ("Questions or Comments") has been relocated to the top pane of the OASIS display to improve visibility. Comments about using OASIS are now sent directly to the OIS problem tracking system (Footprints). The new comment handling process now sends a confirming email back to the user who sent the comment.
• Changes associated with searching:
  • "Refine Search" screen improvements. To increase visibility of options, the label "Option to refine last search" and list of refine options now display at the top of the Refine Search form. The default refine option is now "search within the current set". Clicking on the "Search" menu option now returns a regular Search form (not Refine Search).
  • On the Search form, "Repository" has been added to the dropdown list of fields. This allows users to AND or NOT a repository as part of a keyword search.
  • Display of search components on the results screen had a confusing way of expressing a limit by repository. Changed (for example) "limit by eadheader=eadid,'hou*" to "limit by repository (Houghton Library)".
  • Improvements added to assist Google search engine discovery of OASIS finding aids.
• Changes associated with "Easy print view" (PDF version of the finding aid):
  • To speed up performance of the "Easy print view" option in OASIS, the PDF versions of all finding aids are now pre-built. Going forward, the OASIS loader will automatically create a PDF version when a finding aid is deposited.
  • PDF versions of some finding aids were missing line breaks for some components (<item>s within <list>; <controlaccess> section). This has been fixed.
• Changes associated with the display of individual finding aids:
  • The persistent ID (URN) to the finding aid now appears in the header pane of the full finding aid display. Use this persistent link when referring to the finding aid in catalogs and web sites (where ever you want a link that will continue to work despite changes to the finding aid's location or access method). If using Internet Explorer, the user can right click on the link to copy the URN or add it to browser favorites. For other browser types, a popup will display instructions on how to add the link to Bookmarks/Favorites.
  • A persistent ID (URN) has been generated for a small number of finding aids that did not get a URN assigned during the initial finding aid load for OASIS version 2.0.
  • Eliminated the blank browser window that users receive when they click on an audio link in a full finding aid.
  • The high level elements previously under <add> were not appearing in the table of contents pane. With migration to EAD 2002, <add> is deprecated and these elements have moved up in the hierarchy and now display in contents.
  • The date normalization routine now checks for a "normal" attribute in <date> and <unitdate> fields. If this attribute is present, its contents will be used to create a start/end dates. If attribute is not present, the routine parses the supplied date and creates normalized start/ end dates. In a future OASIS release, start and end dates will support data range searching.
• Changes associated with the header portion of the OASIS display:
  • Clicking the OASIS "Veritas" shield now takes the user to the OASIS home page.
  • Mousing over images in the OASIS top banner now displays captions in Netscape 7.