ARC Tutorials

This tutorial will take you through the steps you need to follow to use My List to print, email, and save archival descriptions that you have found by searching ARC.

You may find it easier to print this tutorial out and follow the steps on a paper copy. If you prefer, you can open a second browser window using the url http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/ and switch between windows to try the steps for yourself.

To start, you need to add an archival description to My List. We're going to search for information about a leading member of the woman suffrage movement, Susan B. Anthony.

 

1. Go to the Archival Descriptions Search and enter the search phrase Susan B Anthony, and click on the Search button to run the search.

When you get the results back, note that every description has an Add to My List button at the right side of it.

Clicking on the Add to My List button will add the archival description to My List.

Once added to My List, you will be able to view the description again at any time throughout your ARC session.

 

2. Find the archival description with the title "U.S. vs Susan B. Anthony, Order to U.S. Marshal to deliver Susan B. Anthony to county jail, 12/26/1872". Click on the Add to My List button.

Before the description is added to My List, you will see a warning.

This warning is to make sure that you understand that once you end your session on ARC by either closing the browser or by not using ARC for 30 minutes, you will lose everything you have saved in My List. You can't save descriptions on My List between sessions.

The first time you add anything to My List in a single ARC session, you will receive this warning.

 

3. To proceed and add your description to My List, click OK on the warning.

You have now added the archival description to My List. Once you do this, you will return to the results page. The Add to My List button for the description you added has now changed to a Remove from My List button.

This lets you quickly check the descriptions that you have added to My List and those that you haven't added.

 

4. Let's add two more descriptions to My List. Click on the Add to My List button at the side of the description with the title, "U.S. vs. Susan B. Anthony, Exhibit B, a transcript of the hearing including examination of witnesses by the defense and prosecution attorneys, and Susan B. Anthony's testimony in her own defense" and the description with the title, "U.S. vs Susan B. Anthony, Order committing Susan B. Anthony to Albany County Jail, 12/26/1872".

These two descriptions will now also show the Remove from My List button.

 

5. Next, we will take a look at the descriptions you added to My List and see what we can do with them. To go to My List, click on the View My List link at the top of the screen.

This takes you to the My List screen. From here you can email archival descriptions to yourself or to someone else. You can also save or print out archival descriptions to create your own electronic or paper copies, respectively.

 

6. First, we will email our chosen descriptions to someone.

At the top right of the My List screen, click on the Email all Results button.

This will open the Email Results screen.

 

7. You can now enter the details that enable the email to be sent.

In the To box, enter the email address of the person you want to receive the email. This can be your own address or the address of someone else. This is the address that the email will be sent to. You must complete this box to be able to send the email.

Note the check box to include thumbnails. If this box is checked, then thumbnail images of any digital copies associated with the archival descriptions will be included in the email. If you don't want to include thumbnails in the email, click in the box to remove the check mark.

 

8. Click on the Send button to send the email.

The screen will update with a message to confirm that your email has been sent.

 

9. To return to searching in ARC, click on the continue using ARC link just below the confirmation message.

Note that you can email archival descriptions to up to five email addresses at once by adding them into the To field one after another, separated by a space in between each address.

Next, we'll print out and save our archival descriptions.

 

10. To print the results, in the My List Results screen click on the Print all Results button in the top right corner of the screen.

Click on this button and you will see the Print Results screen. There are two ways of displaying and printing the information in an archival description - Summary or Full Details. The Summary layout will print the fields shown on the Summary results page in ARC. The Full Details page will print the fields shown on the full Archival Description page in ARC.

 

11. Click on the down arrow to access the list of print options and select Summary.

At the bottom of the Print Results screen there is a check box to include thumbnails in your printouts. Where there are digital copies available for an archival description, placing a check mark in this box will include thumbnails of the images in your printed copies. If you don't want the thumbnails, click in the box to remove the check mark. For now, leave the box checked.

 

12. Then click on the Print button to see a print preview.

You can now see the information you will print out in the print preview.

To print off or save a copy, you will need to use the print and save options in your browser. We will look at how to print and save from either the Internet Explorer (IE) browser or the Firefox browser.

 

13. For Internet Explorer (IE), click on the File menu and select Print.

 

14. You will see a print dialog box showing your selected printer. Click on Print to send your results to the printer. Your search results will then be printed out on paper.

 

15. Also in Internet Explorer (IE), click on the File menu and select Save As. Provide a file name and select Save to save the descriptions.

16. Click the Back button in your browser twice to return to My List.

 

17. For Firefox, go to the File menu and select Print.

 

18. You will then see the print dialog box. Check your printer and click OK to print out the descriptions. Your search results will then be printed out on paper.

 

19. Also in Firefox, click on the File menu and select Save Page As. Provide a file name and select Save to save the descriptions.

 

20. Click the Back button in your browser twice to return to My List.

Note that you can view the full details of any archival description by clicking on the title link.

You can also easily remove descriptions from My List by clicking on the Remove from My List button at the side of each description. You can also remove all the entries at once by clicking on the Remove all results from My List button at the top left of the My List screen.

Now you have successfully emailed, printed, and saved all the archival descriptions in My List. You might also want to email, print, and/or save individual archival descriptions in My List. To do this, click on either the Email or Print button to the right of an individual archival description.

Then follow the same steps as described above for emailing, printing, and saving multiple descriptions.

 

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