Using Facebook to Promote your Public Database

Vancouver, BC – April 26, 2011 – With the release of the WebGENCAT™ v5 search engine every Eloquent Systems customer will be able to harness the power of social media to promote their institution. Links on every page of their public database make it easy for the public to share with their friends and to contribute comments to the database. Other improvements in Version 5 make the system more intuitive for novices while retaining the power and precision expected by experienced researchers who lack the time to wade through irrelevant material.

New features available for every Eloquent WebSuite v5 application include the following:

Social Network Sharing
There are links on every detail display page into Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites so you can easily share the page with friends or groups. The "friend" gets the page as well links to related sections of the database and to the attached photographs and other digital objects. New people become aware of your holdings – people that may have never found them otherwise.

Contributing Comments
A comment box at the bottom of the detail page invites the public to leave comments about the item. They may know something about the topic or know some detail in the picture. Since Facebook is used to manage the comments, the public must log into Facebook in the process. The next time someone views the page they will see the comments as well as the Facebook names of the contributors. As monitor you will be able to easily review all new comments, or configure the system so that you approve them before they go public. A similar feature can be implemented utilizing a Google routine rather than Facebook.

Thumbnail Caching
The systems does not require saving of thumbnails of the images. High resolutions are adequate. Whenever a thumbnail is required, as is the case when multiple images are attached to a single metadata record or when the image is imbedded with text, it is generated by the software at the server for ease of transmission. These images are cached on the server for faster response on subsequent requests. Response remains fast for as many as two hundred images attached to a single descriptive record.

Numbered Images
The Eloquent software provides the option for a unique caption beside each attached digital object. If the Eloquent File Explorer is used for process, the file name is used automatically used for the caption, but can be manually altered. However, when no captions are provided it is difficult for a researcher to contribute comments about a specific photograph. Version 5 supplies sequential numbers to solve this problem.

Popular Button
A new Popular button on the top ribbon takes users directly to a browse of the most popular items/collections in the database. These items all have a special code assigned. You can use statistics compiled by Google Analytics to select the items. People entering the database for the first time enjoy instant satisfaction and with the data that is most likely to be of interest.

Clear Button
The Clear button is available in the top ribbon of the search page as well as a few other places to make it easier for users to "start over."

Language Translation
A link on every detail page can be used to send the page to Google Translate for conversion to any language you wish. This does not change the data on the database and is not to be confused with Eloquent’s Multi-lingual module, which gives researchers the ability to log into the system with their own language, getting instructions as well as data in their own language. To facilitate this, the database must be translated into a second, third, or any number of languages. The translate function is semi-automatic, using Google Translate in the process.

Member Registration
There is an option available for the public to register as members. With member privileges they can maintain their own demographics, place requests directly into the database, view the status of their own account, and get other special privileges for reporting and data output.

All the above features are demonstrated in an online sample database containing over 60,000 photographs and 350,000 descriptive records. You are welcome to enjoy exploring the database and sharing with your friends.

Eloquent Systems Inc. is a privately owned developer of Web-based knowledge management applications. WebGENCAT™ is the runtime platform for the Eloquent WebSuite™ and all its applications – Eloquent Archives™, Eloquent Librarian™, Eloquent Museum™ and Eloquent Records™. The software product line is available "in the cloud" on an Eloquent SaaS server, or for purchase and installation on the customer server.