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In a previous post, we shared how cIRcle metadata supports a wide range of characters to provide representation of non-English, multilingual, and non-language content included in UBC graduate theses and dissertations.
In this post, we will explain how anyone can use Open Collections to discover UBC graduate theses and dissertations already available in cIRcle that incorporate non-English and multilingual content.
If you are a UBC graduate student and are ready to submit your thesis or dissertation, consult cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations Submissions checklist for further guidance.
Using Simple Search
To start your search, navigate to the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection within Open Collections. For more details on locating this collection, see the Getting Started section of cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations at cIRcle : Discovery and Use guide.
If you do not have a specific resource already in mind, you may perform a simple keyword search in the main search bar on the UBC Theses and Dissertations collection’s homepage. This will retrieve all theses and dissertations that include your keyword(s) anywhere within the metadata or full text.
For example, searching the keyword “Québec” (with or without quotation marks) returns the following results. Notice that the results page also includes items with keyword instances that omit the accent aigu (using “e” instead of “é”).
From the search results page, you can refine your results further (for example, by Program) using the available filters in the left-side menu. See the Filter Your Search Results and Explore related items from an Item Page sections of cIRcle’s Theses and Dissertations at cIRcle : Discovery and Use guide for more information.
Using Advanced Search
While a simple search can be useful for initial browsing and discovery of content, using Advanced Search in Open Collections can help you generate more precise results, using metadata fields to target your search terms.
In the following example, an initial simple search query has been used to retrieve a total of 78 items that include the Chinese characters 祖國-母親, signifying Motherland-China (zuguo-muqin). However, we may want to only see items that include these characters within the “Description” or “Title” field. To do this, navigate to “Advanced Search” beneath the search button on your results page (or from the main Open Collections homepage).
From the Advanced Search page, you can build a query with non-English or other specialized characters either by typing or copying and pasting the relevant terms into the search box(es). Ensure you select only the relevant field(s) you want to target.
To target your search only to theses and dissertations, select “Add Limits” on the left side of the search window. Next, select only the collection(s) you want to include in your search (in this case, the ‘UBC Theses and Dissertations’ collection).
Once you are satisfied with your query, click the search button to retrieve your results. For a detailed overview on how to build Advanced Search queries, consult this instructional blog post on using Advanced Search to find cIRcle content.
For this example query, we combined two separate fields (with the same search terms) using the ‘OR’ Boolean condition.
This advanced query retrieves 1 result : a Master’s thesis by Yuhe Zhang. The keyword has been located within the “Title” field of the item. You can also select “Show Details” to view other instances of the keyword displayed in other fields. In this example, the keyword has also been identified within the item’s “Description” field.
Finding Items by Language
The Advanced Search page also includes the option to search the “Language” field. This field displays language codes that reflect the predominant language(s) of an item.
cIRcle’s Language field uses ISO 639-2 codes, each of which consist of 3 letters corresponding to a particular language. The term “Other” is also used to designate resources in languages that are less commonly represented in cIRcle.
Therefore, in order to search this field, you must enter either a valid ISO-639-2 code or “Other.” For example, you must enter “fre” and select “Language” as the target field, in order to find theses and dissertations written in the French language.
Limitations and Future Work
As we’ve highlighted in this post, Open Collections’ search interface allows you to find and retrieve items in cIRcle using a wide range of non-English, multilingual, and specialized characters. cIRcle aims for metadata to be representative of the range of diverse UBC outputs, and that this content can be findable and usable by others.
At the same time, there are current technical limitations. For example, search terms with diacritic characters may not generate complete results. Finding non-English and multilingual items may require additional experimentation with both simple and advanced search functions, with or without the intended characters. Issues related to inconsistent or incomplete results can also vary across both UBC and non-UBC search interfaces.
While cIRcle has limited ability to provide consultation and review of all search-related issues, we are committed to improving the accuracy of search and retrieval of non-English content through active exploration and pursuit of solutions.
For example, as part of our ongoing efforts to expand the representation of languages within cIRcle, the repository has plans to adopt the ISO 639-3 standard in the Language metadata field. To learn more about this initiative, as well as other metadata enhancements planned for cIRcle, visit the cIRcle Projects page.
We hope this post has been helpful. If you have any questions, feel free to contact the cIRcle team through our contact form.
