Help
(working with these resources)

The information and images made available through this digital project form a true "virtual collection;" not only were the original maps, manuscripts and books derived from several sources, the digital reproductions of each are distributed among various server computers. This website acts as a portal through which to search and access all these resources at once. In order to make the best use of this system, we provide the following short glossary of terms and relevant tools:

• Acrobat Reader: A free software package that, downloaded to your computer, will allow the viewing of PDF documents.  Download.
• Adobe: Software corporation that created both the Portable Document Format (PDF) and the Acrobat Reader software used to view these documents.
• Browse: To view the contents of a database in list form, usually arranged by alphabet
• Database: Any collection of informational items (i.e., data, and in this case digital images and text) stored on computer and made available for searching.
• DjVu: A file format (similar in its use to PDF) to allow detailed viewing of digitized documents and other images; created by LizardTech Corporation.
• Hits: The results of a database query or web search
• Keyword: Any word or words used in a database search to narrow the results, or hits, returned.
• LizardTech: Software corporation that created and distributes DjVu technologies.
• PDF (Portable Document Format): A electronic file format that allows efficient viewing and indexing of documents.
• Query: To request information (e.g., through keywords or browsing) of a database; also, the precise nature of that request.

Notes and Website Conventions