IntraLibrary is a digital repository system, which enables people to store, manage, share and re-use digital documents, e.g. learning objects, e-prints, images and so on, using a simple web-based interface. Managing such materials collectively can save time and effort, and build a valuable shared resource.

IntraLibrary is particularly good for storage, sharing, reuse and repurposing of learning objects. Learning objects can include documents, presentations, web pages, images and multimedia. They can be packaged for easy transmission, upload and delivery as standard content packages.

There are also many other types of digital object that an organisation can store and manage using intraLibrary, including e-prints (with Dublin Core metadata and OAI-PMH harvesting) and JPEG images (with thumbnails in search results, light-box view of images, and support for NISO z39.87 and EXIF metadata).

All objects stored in intraLibrary include metadata (catalogue descriptions) to make it easy to find, select, retrieve and reuse them.

IntraLibrary enables people to:

• store and share both simple files and complex packages of learning content.
• search and browse the collection to find objects useful to them.
• efficiently categorise large numbers of objects.
• preview the contents of packages.
• exchange reusable packages of content with learning delivery systems and library systems.
• review and rate objects, and share with others the ways in which they have used them.
• receive automatic updates on objects of specific interest to them.

Your installation of intraLibrary can be accessed through the Internet using any recent web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, on any operating system.

Your administrator should have supplied you with a link to the homepage of your library, and a username and password. However, your library may be specially set up to be accessed via an externally managed system, such as Athens; if this is the case follow your administrator's instructions for logging in. Otherwise, when you go to the homepage of the library in your web browser, you will see a page like this:

Enter your username and password. If you have forgotten your password, click on the forgotten password? link and your password will be emailed to you. If this link does not appear, your administrator has turned this function off and you will need to contact them directly.

The first time you log in, you will be asked to confirm some details (or properties) for your user profile. These include your full name, your email address, your affiliation (e.g. your institution, project or department) and your preferred language. You may also change your password at this point. Your administrator may have specific instructions for filling this section in. The new user profile screen looks like this:

Once you have confirmed these details the first time, you will be able to check them or update them at any time by clicking on profile under your name in the navigation bar, then properties. Other aspects of your user profile are explained below in section 3 Your User Profile.

For some organisations using intraLibrary, your administrator will also require you to agree to certain terms and conditions for using the library. This may appear as another screen the first time you log in. You will need to view the agreement, then click on agree, then update, in order to use the library. Your usage agreements are available at any time by clicking on profile under your name in the navigation bar, then agreements. Other aspects of your user profile are explained below in section 3 Your User Profile.

When you have logged in successfully, you will see a navigation bar at the top of the page, which gives you several options for what you can do next. The following image shows the navigation bar as it appears to Contributor and Librarian users: it has advanced search, browse library and work area options. General users will only see the advanced search and browse library options, while Administrator users will see advanced search, browse library, work area and admin tools options.

These options are explained in the following sections. Specific help for the different parts and functions of intraLibrary is also available. This can be accessed by clicking the help button whilst using intraLibrary or through the help button which always appears in the navigation bar under your name.

You can access your user profile at any time by clicking on profile in the navigation bar under your name. Your profile includes:

• Properties: Basic details about you.
• Preferences: Your personal preferences for using certain aspects of intraLibrary.
• Agreements: Any usage agreements you have signed for using the library.
• Groups: See your group memberships, and set what type of alerts you will receive about learning objects in your group workflows. If you do not have access to workflows (i.e. you are not a Contributor user), you will still see your groups and be able to set your alerts, as you can still receive e-mail alerts relevant to your group membership.
• News Feeds: Your RSS news feeds.

Each of these user profile sections is further explained below.

The first time you log into intraLibrary, you will be asked to enter personal details. See section 2.1 Confirming Your Details for more information. Whenever you are logged in you can access and edit these details by clicking on profile then properties.

It is important that these details are entered correctly so that various intraLibrary functions can work for you, e.g. so that you can receive email alerts. Your email address must be entered in the correct format (e.g. name@place.com). You can also change your password here.

You can set a number of user preferences for yourself by clicking on profile then preferences. The preferences you can set are as follows:

• General: Default Timeout: Allows you to set how long after logging into intraLibrary the system will log you out, if you have not been using the library.
• General: Send Notification Email?: Only for those users who can contribute objects to the library (Contributor, Librarian and Administrator users). Allows you to set whether you would like to receive a confirmation email when you add an object to the library.
• Metadata Entry: Metadata Template: Only for those users who can contribute objects to the library (Contributor, Librarian and Administrator users). Allows you to set a default metadata template that will be applied when you upload objects to the library.
• Metadata Entry: Licence Pattern: Only for those users who can contribute objects to the library (Contributor, Librarian and Administrator users). Allows you to set a default licence pattern that will be applied when you upload objects to the library.
• Discovery: Object List Size: Allows you to set the number of objects you would like to see listed per screen for each search you carry out. The more objects you see per screen the longer it will take for the page to load.
• Discovery: Show Thumbnails on Results: Your local administrator can set up intraLibrary so that you can see thumbnails for any images that appear in your search results list. This setting allows you to turn the ability to view thumbnails on or off. When it is switched on (set to "Yes"), it may take longer for your search results page to load.
• Discovery: Thumbnail List Size: IntraLibrary provides a link at the top of any search results screen that allows you to see a new page containing all the images from your search as thumbnails. You can use this setting to say how many images you would like to see on each page of thumbnails.
• Discovery: Default Object View: When you are looking at a list of search results, you can click the Preview button to view an individual object. There are two ways in which you can preview objects. The item view shows you an object consisting of a single file or external link as is within a browser window or within the relevant application, and shows you the internal navigational structure of an object containing multiple files. The package view allows you to see the internal navigational structure of an object, whether or not it's a single file. See section 5.1 Viewing Objects for more information.
• Discovery: Default Search Filter: IntraLibrary allows you to save your favourite searches in the advanced search screen as "search filters". Once you have done this you can save a search filter as your default. This search filter will be added to any other search you carry out. For instance, if you set your default search filter to search for PDF documents only, then any future search you carry out will only return a list of PDF documents that meet that search.
• Discovery: Reduce Mime Type List?: One of the ways in which you can search intraLibrary in the advanced search screen is by technical format. When you search by technical format you select from a drop-down list of technical formats. If you set this option as "Yes" the drop-down list will only include those technical formats for which objects exist in the library, rather than the full list of technical formats. So if there are only PowerPoint slides, Flash files and JPEG images in the library, those are the only three options you will be able to select from in your search.
• Misc: Email me when someone comments on one of my objects?: Only for those users who can contribute objects to the library (Contributor, Librarian and Administrator users). If you set this as "Yes", you will be emailed comments other users have made about objects you have contributed to the library.

Your library's administrator may have required you to click "Agree" to terms and conditions of use when you log in. See section 2.2 Agreeing to Terms and Conditions of Use for more information. If you have "signed" an agreement in this way, you can look at your agreements at any time by clicking on profile then agreements.

You can be notified about new objects in the library by setting up an RSS news feed for any search you carry out. You can use any feed reader to receive these alerts. IntraLibrary also keeps a record of your news feeds, with the names and descriptions you have given them, in your profile: click on profile then news feeds. You can see current results for feeds here, and delete feeds. For more details, see below under section 4.5 Receiving Automatic Updates on Your Favourite Searches: RSS News Feeds.

All intraLibrary users belong to one or more groups. These groups are set up and managed by your administrator. They allow for different users to have access to different workflows and collections. Workflows only apply to those users who may contribute objects to the library, however, all users can see which groups they belong to by clicking on profile then groups. From there you can select what kind of email alerts you would like to receive related to your groups' workflows. For more information on contributing objects see the intraLibrary manual Getting Started- Uploading and Cataloguing Objects. For more information on setting up groups and workflows, see the intraLibrary manual Administrator's Guide.

The simple search box is always available in the top left-hand corner of the main window. It is similar to Google: you can type in any word or words and click search. You will then see a list of objects matching your search words in the lower right-hand side of the screen. You can also search by exact phrase by putting the phrase in quotes.

When the results of a simple search are listed in the right-hand screen, you will immediately see the advanced search view on the left, so that you can further refine your search if you wish to, as in the illustration below. For more information on how to do an advanced search, see section 4.3 Advanced Searches below.

There are a number of clickable buttons and other links and information that appear by each object in the search results listing. These are explained further in this section, and in section 5 Using Objects.

To browse the library, click on the browse library button in the navigation bar at the top of the page. In the browse screen, objects are categorised using a classification system or taxonomy, in a similar way to books in a traditional library. The classification system is displayed on the left-hand screen as a browse tree of categories and sub-categories. Your library may include a number of different classification systems. Any given object may be classified in a number of different places within a classification system or systems.

Use the "+" buttons to expand the tree to find a category you are interested in. To display all the objects classified under a given category, click on the category's name. The objects classified at that category will be listed in the right-hand screen. At the top of this list you will see a number indicating how many objects are classified in the browse tree at the category you have selected. Next to this, you will see the number of objects classified at, or at a level below the category you have selected. You can view all of these by clicking on the link given. You can then return to the original category alone by clicking the left-hand link. The image below illustrates all of these aspects of browsing the library:

IntraLibrary allows you to carry out complex searches. For instance, you can look for objects in a particular format or by a specific author, or combine both these searches (e.g. searching for all Flash animations by Charles Dickens). As noted above under section 4.1 Using Simple Search, you will see an advanced search screen on the left-hand side of the screen after carrying out a simple search, allowing you to refine your basic search. You can also carry out an advanced search at any time by clicking on advanced search in the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

In both cases, you will see a form for defining your search in the left-hand panel. The first step is choosing what attribute you wish to search by; this can be selected from the choose constraint drop-down menu. For instance, the following image shows a user selecting "technical format" as a search constraint in advanced search.

For some kinds of search constraint, you will be offered a box to fill in with your own words (e.g. for searching by "title" you can enter words). For others you will be offered a drop-down menu of words used in that field (e.g. for searching by "technical format" you will see a list of formats to select from). The following image shows a user selecting a search for Microsoft Word documents:

You can further refine your search by clicking the button and adding another search term or terms:

You can also decide whether you want to search for objects containing all of your search terms, or objects containing any of your search terms, by selecting the appropriate option in the drop-down box within Search for results which match [all/any] constraints.

For more detailed information on using advanced search, consult the Intrallect Advanced Search Methods manual.

From the advanced search page it is possible to save your favourite advanced searches, known as "filters", so you can reuse them easily. Enter a name for your search in the box under save current search as a filter and click on save, as illustrated below:

This search filter will then appear in a drop-down menu under choose search filter. When you select it, the search you have saved will appear in the advanced search form; click on search to perform the search, or refine it further by clicking the button and adding another search term or terms.

Users who have permission to add objects to the library can use their search filters to search their Work Area. For more information, see intraLibrary manual Getting Started- Uploading and Cataloguing Objects, in section 3.1 Creating and Editing Metadata: Cataloguing Objects in the Library.

IntraLibrary allows you to receive automatic notifications of new objects that meet your favourite searches and browse categories. To take advantage of this without having to log into the library, you will need an RSS feed reader.

To set up a notification, or news feed, carry out the following steps:

• Carry out a search or select a browse category.
• Click on the Create News Feed link at the top of the right-hand screen; a new window will open up.
• Give your news feed a name. You can also add a description and language; these are optional.
• Click the Create Feed button. A new view will appear in the window with an RSS Link button.
• The RSS Link button gives you access to your feed URL, which you can use in any RSS feed reader. The exact way this will work depends on the reader, e.g. for Google Reader you can just click on the button and it will be added to the reader; other readers may require you to right-click on the button and save the URL to enter into the reader.

You can access your RSS feeds within intraLibrary at any time by clicking on profile in the navigation bar at the top of the screen, then news feeds. You can view current results from your feed search there by clicking view results. You may delete feeds from this screen as well.

You can search for particular image types (e.g. JPEGs, GIFs, etc.) in advanced search by using the technical format option (see above under section 4.3 Advanced Searches for more information). Your local administrator can also set up intraLibrary to allow you to identify and view thumbnails for JPEG images in any search or browse you carry out. If you wish to see thumbnails of JPEGs in your search or browse results listing, you must set your user preference Show thumbnails on results to "Yes" (click on profile in the top navigation bar, then preferences).

Whether or not you use this setting, if your administrator has set up intraLibrary for viewing images in search results, you will be able to click on the Display all images link at the top of any search or browse results listing, and see a page with all of the JPEGs returned by your search as a set of thumbnails. You can click on each thumbnail and see a larger version of the image with information about the image, as below:

From here you can carry out the same actions on the images as you would on any list of objects in intraLibrary. You can also return to your original search by clicking the Back to full search results link at the top of the right-hand screen.

NB: IntraLibrary supports this image viewing functionality only for JPEGs at present, due to the number of people producing these images through digital photography. Further image formats will be added in future versions.

Whether you find objects in intraLibrary by simple or advanced search, or by browsing, the results will always be presented to you as shown below.

The icons shown on the left, and the comments and ratings link, allow you to carry out certain actions on each object in the listing. The Create news feed and Display all images links at the top allow you to carry out these actions on your entire search or browse. (NB: If you don't see a Display all images link then your local administrator has not switched on the view images functionality).

If you are a Contributor, Librarian or Administrator user, and are therefore able to contribute and manipulate objects in the library, you will see additional icons and other options with the object listing. To find out about these see the Getting Started- Uploading and Cataloguing Objects and Librarian's Guide manuals.

The shaded area gives you the object's title, description, technical format and size. To find out how to view more information on the object (see section 5.3 Seeing More Information About a Object below).

The shaded area also includes the average number of star ratings given to the object by users, and has a link that allows you to create and view comments on and ratings of the object (see section 5.2 Commenting On and Rating Objects below).

The remainder of this section describes what you can do when presented with this view.

IntraLibrary allows you to preview objects once you have found them. You can view individual objects and external web resources directly. You can also fully explore complex objects stored as standard content packages. IntraLibrary supports packages in IMS Content Packaging and SCORM formats. When a package includes interactions and navigation these will all be fully operational in the preview.

Select the preview button next to the listing for the object. A new window will open showing you the object. NB: If you don't have the correct software to open an object, you will not be able to view it, e.g. if you try to view a Flash animation and don't have a Flash player installed on your computer, you will be able to download the file but you will not be able to view it. More information about viewing objects is given in this section.

The way you see an object depends first of all on whether you have selected package or item view as your default view in your user preferences. Click on profile in the top navigation bar, then preferences to select your default. The two possibilities are explained below:

Item view means that every object you view will open directly, either in a browser window or in the application used for that object. This depends on the type of browser you are using and the type of object. For instance, in some cases a PDF document will open in your browser window while a Word document will open in Word; in other cases they will both open in your browser window. In any case, for single files you will be able to view or download the object (for more details on downloading objects, see below under section 5.4 Downloading Objects). The only exception in item view is if you preview a object that consists of a set of smaller objects packaged in a content package. In this case you will see a left-hand pane allowing you to see the "organisation" or content structure of the package, while the object will appear in the right-hand screen, where you can fully explore it.

Package view means that every object you view will open in the right-hand pane, with package information on the left-hand pane (see below for more details about this). This is because even single files in the library are stored as standard content packages, and some users may wish to have content packaging functionality available for any object they are working with.

With either viewing option, when you are looking at an object in the right-hand pane with content packaging information on the left, you can choose to see the object using resource view or navigation view. These two options are available from a drop-down menu on the left-hand screen. Content packages consist of zip files with a table of contents which determines what order the resources will be presented in, known as an "organisation". In navigation view, this "organisation" will be shown in the left-hand screen, and you will be able to view individual objects within the package, in the right-hand screen, in the order they were intended to be seen. In resource view, the left-hand screen will contain a simple list of all the resources used in the package. In either view, you can click the export package link to download the object as a content package (for more details on downloading objects, see below under section 5.4 Downloading Objects).

The illustration below shows a content package being viewed in navigation view, with the table of contents showing on the left-hand screen, and a section within the content package showing in the right hand screen.

Wherever you see the www button in the preview screen you can use it to create a Public URL for linking directly to the package or resource in the library. For more information on this see section 5.5 Linking to Objects in intraLibrary: Public URL.

You can comment on and give a star rating to any object (NB: your administrator may remove this permission for certain collections). Click the comments and ratings link in the listing for the object, and a pop-up window will appear showing any existing user comments and ratings, as well as an average rating. You can add a comment by typing into the text field and clicking add comment. You can add a star rating by selecting from the drop-down menu under the comments box and clicking add comment. Your name and the date when you add a comment and/or star rating will be automatically recorded. The average number of star ratings will be refreshed the next time the right side of the screen is updated.

There is a button beside each object in a listing that allows you to view the full catalogue record, also known as metadata, for the object. When you click on this button, all the information that has been recorded about the object will be listed in a pop-up window.

IntraLibrary allows you to download objects from the repository and save them locally on your computer. There are two ways to do this:

1. Downloading an object when previewing it: When you preview a single file by clicking the preview button , you can then save it as you normally would when downloading a file in your browser. For instance, you can select the save option if presented with this by your browser, or you can right click on the object and select the save option. You can also download a single file object or a package from preview as an IMS Content Package by clicking the export package link. To do this for a single file you will need to set your Default object view to package in your preferences (click profile then preferences in the main toolbar). For more on previewing objects in the library, see above under section 5.1 Viewing Learning Objects.

2. Downloading objects using the download options button: To download any object, click the download options button . You will be presented with a pop-up window which lists several options. The options will vary according to whether you are downloading a single file, a content package, or a link to an external resource; this means that you will sometimes see options that are greyed out because they are not available for the particular object type. The basic download options will appear first at the top of the window, with an option to click on advanced options for more experienced users. NB: If the download options button itself is greyed out, then your administrator has disabled download functionality for that object; you will need to contact them directly. The following illustration shows the download pop-up window, with both basic and advanced search options open:

The basic download options are as follows:

• Download Single File: This allows you to download a single file directly as you would when in the preview screen (see above). If the object is not a single file, but is a more complex content package, then this option will be greyed out.
• Download file as Content Package: This allows you to download any file held in the library packaged as a .zip file in IMS Content Packaging format with IEEE LOM metadata.
• Public URL for viewing single file / package preview: This allows you to get a web link (URL) for the object in the library, that you can use to link to the object from any location without authentication, for instance from within a VLE, reading list or e-mail. This option means you can deliver the object to others directly from within intraLibrary, without downloading it. If this option is greyed out, your administrator may have disabled this functionality; you will need to contact them directly.

Advanced Download Options: As noted above, you can click to view a set of advanced options from within the download options window. These are:

• Packages: Download as Content Package with LOM metadata: This allows you to download any file held in the library packaged as a .zip file in IMS Content Packaging format with IEEE LOM metadata. This is exactly the same as the Download file as Content Package option under the basic download options noted above.
• Packages: Download as Content Package with LOM metadata (no extensions): This allows you to download any file held in the library packaged as a .zip file in IMS Content Packaging format with IEEE LOM metadata, but without any non-LOM metadata extensions that may be in the package. This option is necessary because some delivery systems (e.g. VLEs and LMSs) don't accept IMS Content Packages if they have metadata extensions that don't conform to the LOM. The object will retain its metadata extensions within the library.
• Packages: Download as Content Package with IMS metadata: This allows you to download any file held in the library packaged as a .zip file in IMS Content Packaging format with IMS metadata. This is necessary because older versions of IMS Content Packaging use the IMS metadata format rather than the LOM, and some delivery systems (e.g. VLEs, LMSs) only support such versions.
• Packages: Download as Content Package with IMS metadata (no extensions): This allows you to download any file held in the library packaged as a .zip file in IMS Content Packaging format with IMS metadata. This is necessary because older versions of IMS Content Packaging use the IMS metadata format rather than the LOM, and some delivery systems (e.g. VLEs, LMSs) only support such versions. In addition, some of these systems don't accept IMS Content Packages if they have metadata extensions that don't conform to IMS metadata. The object will retain its metadata extensions within the library.
• Packages: Download as Content Package with original manifest: IntraLibrary allows users to import content packages with non-standard extensions to the metadata or other parts of the manifest, and store them as is in the library. However, the usual download options listed above will only export a package conforming to the content packaging and metadata standards, so anything intraLibrary doesn't recognise as standard will be stripped out on download. This option allows users the option of downloading a package with the original manifest (including metadata) that it was imported with. NB: In this case any changes to the metadata made while the object is within intraLibrary will be lost during download, although they will persist within the library.
• Metadata: Download Learning Object's metadata in LOM format: This allows you to download an XML file containing only the object's metadata, in IEEE LOM format.
• Metadata: Download Learning Object's metadata in IMS format: This allows you to download an XML file containing only the object's metadata, in IMS LRM format.
• Metadata: Download Learning Object's metadata in Dublin Core format: This allows you to download an XML file containing only the object's metadata, in the Dublin Core metadata format. Because this format is simpler than the LOM or IMS metadata formats, some data will be lost.

Downloading SCORM packages: IntraLibrary will import SCORM content packages, and allows users to export them intact. In order for a content package to conform to SCORM, it must use IEEE LOM metadata. Therefore the first two options in the advanced download screen differ when an object that was imported as a SCORM package is being downloaded: rather than saying "Packages: Download as Content Package with LOM metadata" they will say "Packages: Download as SCORM Content Package with LOM metadata". The other options are available, but because they either change LOM metadata to IMS metadata, or strip out extensions, or both, the object as downloaded will no longer conform to SCORM and will simply be an IMS Content Package. NB: You cannot export a package as a SCORM package unless it was imported as a SCORM package. There are SCORM packaging editors available that allow you to create and edit SCORM packages.

Downloading external resources: IntraLibrary allows you to store information about external resources (e.g. web links and details about non-digital resources). When you click on the download options button for these resources, the basic view will say "This learning object is not stored in the repository. It cannot be downloaded from the repository. It is located here: [location]". However, it is still possible to use the advanced download options given above; in this case the object within any content package downloaded will be the URL or other external locator for the resource along with its metadata, rather than the resource itself. All objects in the library have catalogue records, or metadata, so it is also possible to use the options for downloading metadata for external resources.

As an alternative to downloading objects, the Public URL feature gives you a web link (URL) which you can use to deliver objects stored in intraLibrary from anywhere, e.g. on a VLE/LMS or web site, in a blog, in an email, or on a reading list. You can get a Public URL from the download options window, as noted above under section 5.4 Downloading Objects. You can also get it from the preview window, as noted above under section 5.1 Viewing Objects. From the preview window, select navigation view from the drop-down menu; each object will have a button next to it. When this button is clicked, a link for the Public URL appears in the right-hand screen.

As noted previously, complex objects consisting of a number of files can be stored in intraLibrary as content packages. Public URLs are available for each individual resource within a package, as well as for the whole package. This means that you can deliver a single resource from a package without having to download the whole package and disassemble it.