Instructions
Users and Contributors
All information on the LCP is linked to users and contributors.
If the information you are submitting is the result of your own work, then you are both a user and a contributor. If you are submitting information published by somebody else (even somebody deceased), then that person is the contributor; you are submitting information on his or her behalf.
Registration (for a video tutorial about registration, click here).
In order to submit information to the LCP, you must register as a user. On the registration page, you will be asked for an email address, a password, and (if applicable) an academic affiliation. Once you are registered, you will be able to submit information.
When you initially register as a site user, you may also check a box to register yourself as a contributor. Registering as a contributor creates a profile page. On that page you may provide further information such as research interests and specialties, a CV and a photo, a link to an academic website, etc. Profile pages allow people to find out more about LCP contributors and facilitate contact among researchers. Profile pages also list all data on the site for which you are listed as the contributor, whether submitted personally or by somebody else on your behalf. The data is arranged by category: wares, petro-fabrics, vessels, petrographic information, etc.
You may also register somebody other than yourself as a contributor. In order to do this, you must first be registered as a site user (because only users can submit information to the LCP, including when that information is a new contributor). To add a new contributor, go to the Submit tab on the navigation bar; from the available choices, select “Add New Contributor.” You will be taken to a blank contributor profile page. When registering somebody else as a contributor, you only need to enter a first and last name. Remember: being a contributor does not automatically allow you to submit data to the LCP; you must also be a user to do that.
If someone has already registered you on the LCP as a contributor, and you would now like to submit data to the site, then you should register as a user (see above) and contact the LCP editor (aberlin@bu.edu) to have your contributor profile connected to your user account.
Once you are registered, you can always find the information that you have submitted to the LCP. Users can find their submitted information by clicking in the “View submission history” box in the upper right corner of the screen. Contributors can find information that they have submitted or that has been attributed to them by going to their profile page and selecting from the boxes on the left side.
Search/Browse/View Information
Anybody can search, browse, and view information on the LCP. It is not necessary to register or sign in; the site is designed to make information about Levantine ceramics readily accessible to all.
Search allows you to find any type of information already in the LCP. Choose search from the navigation bar, and enter a country, region, date, period, site name, site type, shape, function, etc. On the results page, use the tabs to see specific vessels, wares/ware families, petro-fabrics, etc. On the left side of the page, filter boxes allow you to further refine your results.
Browse allows you to view abbreviated lists of specific categories of information: wares/ware families, petro-fabrics, petrographic images and descriptions, vessels, kiln sites, and the LCP master bibliography. On any browse page, you can refine your results by sorting on the columns or using the search bar at the upper right. To see more information, click through to an item’s full display page.
The utility of search and browse depends on the amount and details of submitted information. As more data is added to the LCP, these tools will become more powerful.
On the view pages, you can find definitions, descriptions, dates, illustrations, and other related data for wares/ware families, petro-fabrics, vessels, petrographic samples, and kiln sites. You can also find the name (and email, when available) of the contributor, meaning the scholar to whom the information is attributed, the name and email of the person who submitted the information, and publication references, when available.
Submit Information
To submit data, select Submit from the navigation bar, and choose from the available options. You may submit wares, petro-fabrics, individual vessels and illustrations, petrographic data, kiln site information, bibliographic references, and new contributors. You may also submit multiple petrographic items via the batch upload option.
LCP submission can be partial; you do not need all relevant data about a ware/ware family or vessel in order to submit information. For example, user A may submit a ware/ware family name and description; users B and C may submit individual vessels that are made in that ware/ware family; user D may submit a petrographic description and thin-section of one of those submitted vessels. In this example, all of this information will appear on the ware/ware family page, with each submission linked to its user(s) and contributor(s). In addition each submission appears on its own individual page. It is also easy to return at a later date and add new information, or change existing information.
When entering data, you may move around in the submission process by selecting from the numbered bubbles at the top of the screen. It is not necessary to fill in every box on the submission pages (so don’t worry if you don’t have all of the requested information). To submit the information, go to the final, summary page and click the "Submit" button on the upper right.
Illustration Guidelines – photographs and drawings
Photographs and drawings are an enormous help in visualizing a vessel. Below are suggested guidelines for LCP images.
Bibliographic references (for a video tutorial about submitting bibliographic references, click here).
On the submit page, you may select “Add bibliographic information.” This will take you to a form for adding a publication. You may want to consult the site’s Master Bibliography before submitting a reference; you can find this under the "Browse/Edit" tab on the navigation bar.
Once a bibliographic reference is in the LCP system, you may link it with any individual item or entry, along with additional information, such as specific pages, figures, plates, etc.
Editing Information
All LCP entries can be edited. Editing privileges are restricted to the original submitter(s) and contributor(s) of the data as well as the LCP Editor. The ability to edit means that the LCP can remain up-to-date, since new data can be integrated with older information. In this way the LCP can continue to reflect the state of current knowledge, and to expand along with our understanding.
To edit an entry, select the pencil icon in the browse list or in the given field on a display page (note that this icon will only appear if you have editing privileges). This will take you to the selected step of the submit page. Once there, you may move around to any step and correct or add additional information. To submit the information, go to the final, summary page and click the "Submit" button on the upper right.
If you are not a contributor to a specific entry, and have information to add or suggestions for change, you may either contact the contributor or person who submitted the information directly, or you may contact the LCP editor (aberlin@bu.edu).
Privacy
When submitting any type of information, you may select from three privacy levels:
Notifications
Contributors can enable a notifications feature by logging on, going to your contributor profile, and clicking on notifications settings. There you can indicate how you would like to receive notifications, how often you receive them, and what you receive notifications for.
On the settings page you can control your options:
Finally, note that you can stop notifications instantly whenever you like by clicking the STOP ALL NOTIFICATIONS button on the settings page.
Copyright
The LCP is designed to allow users to submit data that has been published by others. When submitting such information, contributor's name(s) - meaning the scholar(s) who studied, analyzed, and/or published the data - should also be included as well as a publication reference, when possible. Every item on the LCP can be linked to a contributor and, when appropriate, a publication; the contributor name(s) and reference then become a permanent part of the item’s record. In this way, copyright and intellectual property are respected.
Bulk Upload of images
For image bulk upload, each line of the spreadsheet should specify a specific individual filename for each image, or a URL that the LCP can access and download the image from. Make sure that each image file is labelled precisely as the name on the excel sheet; do not specify a pathway (e.g., C:\ filepaths). Put all images within a single folder without subfolders; do not embed images within individual folders. Compress the folder of image files into a single zip file for uploading.
Comparisons (for a video tutorial about the comparisons feature, click here).
While you are using the Levantine Ceramics Project, you may generate side by side comparisons of different wares, vessels, etc. You can access this feature in one of two ways. The first is through the search feature. Anything that comes up as a search result will automatically have a button that reads "Add to comparison". You can also utilize this feature on the browse page by choosing the "+" option in the rightmost column. To view your comparisons, you can consult the drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The entries you have chosen will appear in their respective categories, and you can filter the information you would like to compare.