Email messages and attachments processed through EAS can optionally be associated with a collection before being deposited to the DRS. This section describes how to create, edit and delete a collection.

 A collection identifies a group of related messages and attachments, usually organized around the personal or institutional creator/owner of the email. In HOLLIS, cataloging of archived email will most likely be at the collection level, as will delivery of this content to end-users. In DRS2 Web Admin, you can retrieve email content by collection name.

You create collections in EASi but they are stored and managed in DRS2 as collection objects. Once created, a collection is view-only in EASi and must be managed directly in Web Admin.

Creating a collection

The option to create a collection is available from the Collections choice on the EAS main menu. A collection consists of a title and other descriptive metadata fields. Consult the Metadata Reference appendix for definitions of these fields.

Within a single EASi (DRS) account, you can create as many separate collections as needed to group your content. You can create a collection at any point before your content is deposited to the DRS, including before your content is ingested into EASi.

Tip: Carefully check your new collection title and other fields for accuracy before saving the collection in EASi. Once created, a collection is view-only in EASi. It is possible to update collection object metadata in Web Admin, but the workflow is complex. See Updating collection metadata in Web Admin for more information.

How to create a new collection:

1. Select the Collections menu option and click the Create tab.

2. Fill in the collection form as needed. Required fields include: title, billing code, DRS load success email and DRS load failure email. See the Metadata Reference appendix for field definitions. 
   Note: The Primary name and Donor name fields are powered by Wordshack person and organization terms. These fields use the Wordshack search widget -- type all or part of a name and matching terms will display. To list all terms, enter an asterisk (*). The term must be defined in Wordshack first before it will appear in the Wordshack search widget.
   
   

3. Click Save to save these changes. At save, the new collection is added as a collection object to DRS2. The DRS ID and object URN of the collection object now display at the bottom of the collection record in EAS.
   
   
   

Viewing a collection

Collections created in EASi are stored as collection objects in DRS2. You can view collections in EASi or in Web Admin.

Viewing collections in EASi. All collections defined under your EASi account can be viewed from the "Collections" choice on the main menu.

1. Select the Collections menu option and click the View tab.
2. Use the Collection drop-down list to select a collection to view.

Viewing collections in Web Admin. You can search for collections at the object level in Web Admin. The most direct way is to do a Quick Search by the DRS ID or DRS URN for the object -- both values appear in the collection display in EASi. Or use a MODS title advanced search to retrieve the collection by its title.

Deleting a collection

A collection cannot be deleted in EAS but the collection object in DRS2 can be deleted by an authorized user. Consult the DRS2 User Guide for instructions on deleting objects.

A collection object should not be deleted if it is associated with any email content (messages or attachments) in EAS or in DRS2. In EAS, you can search by collection title to determine if there is related email content. In Web Admin, you can perform an advanced search that combines Content Model=Email Message and Is Related to Object with ID (DRS ID of the collection).

Viewing collection statistics

The Collections Summary tab presents statistics about email content in the collection that is stored in EAS and not yet transferred to DRS.

Updating collection metadata in Web Admin

The collection you create in EAS is stored as a collection object in DRS2. With the exception of non-public note, the collection descriptions are stored as descriptive metadata. The current release of Web Admin has only limited support for editing this metadata that involves importing a custom MODS file. If you need to update collection title, MODS import is your only option. Consult the DRS2 Web Admin User Guide for more information.