American University Research Commons

Communities and collection in ARC have a hierarchical structure. This is due in part to the software upon which it is built. All AU Schools and Colleges have their own subsection of ARC in which content can be placed. The structure of communities within the various schools and colleges will depend upon existing internal structures. Individual faculty commons will be at the school/college or departmental level as appropriate. Below is an example of existing ARC hierarchy, with the community levels indicated in bold, and the collections indicated by italics:

Schools and Colleges
          College of Arts and Sciences (AU-CAS)
                    Dept. of Literature (AU-CAS-LIT)
                                   Individual Faculty Commons (AU-CAS-LIT)
                                             Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT)
                                                  Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Course Material
                                                  Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Publications
                                                  Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Conference Proceedings

          School of Communication (AU-SOC)
                    Center for Environmental Filmmaking (AU-SOC)
                              Classroom in the Wild (AU-SOC)
                    Individual Faculty Commons (AU-SOC)
                              Joe Smith (AU-SOC)
                                   Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Articles
                                   Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Short films
                                   Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Student Productions
                    Graduate Student Commons (AU-SOC)
                              Jill Gray (AU-SOC):
                              Tim Sand (AU-SOC):
                              Ann Rye (AU-SOC):

          School of International Service (AU-SIS)
                    Individual Faculty Commons (AU-SIS)
                              Meg Merry (AU-SIS)
                                   Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Course Material
                                   Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Articles
                                   Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Conference Proceedings

Naming Conventions for ARC

Note the level of specificity in the collection names above. This is an established naming convention that must be adhered to. In the course of using various parts of the ALADIN Research Commons (of which ARC is a community), particularly at the administrator level, one is presented with a drop-down box of all collections from all WRLC schools. Without the level of specificity developed as naming conventions, it is impossible to determine what community a given collection lives in from the drop-down display. For example, if the collections for faculty members Jane Doe, Meg Merry, and Joe Smith were named more simply, such as depicted below:

Jane Doe
          Course Material
          Publications
          Conference Proceedings

Meg Merry
          Course Material
          Articles
          Conference Proceedings

Joe Smith
          Articles
          Short Films
          Student Productions

The presentation of all collections in the system via drop-down boxes would appear as shown in Column 1. Note that without the level of specificity that our established naming convention dictates, it is impossible to determine who a particular "Articles" collection belongs too. The established naming convention is meant to resolve this problem in drop-down menus, as depicted in Column 2:

Column 1		Column 2
Articles Articles Course Material Course Material Conference Proceedings Conference Proceedings Publications Short Films Student Productions		Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Course Material Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Publications Jane Doe (AU-CAS-LIT): Conference Proceedings Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Course Material Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Articles Meg Merry (AU-SIS): Conference Proceedings Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Articles Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Short Films Joe Smith (AU-SOC): Student Productions

Finally, the abbreviation that identifies the location of a particular collection in the hierarchy is necessary because individuals may have collections in multiple places in the hierarchy.