The Web Community's Document Library is a great resource for finding documents related to your chapter/division or documents from IAAP headquarters, but knowing how to use it properly is important to finding what you're looking for.
Please follow the guide below to learn how to search the Document Library. If you have additional questions, please email Ben McClanahan, IAAP Internet Communications Coordinator.
Before you search
If you're simply looking for a document from headquarters, you should look in the IAAP International Library first before attempting to search for the document. The library's folder view makes finding documents by department (I.E. Membership, Certification, etc.) easy.
To access the IAAP International Library, click on the link in the Resources dropdown menu:
In the example below, if you're looking for a document relating to the Certification department, you simply highlight the folder and double click on the title of the document you would like to access.
Searching the Library
1) To search the document library, select "Search library" from the "Resources" dropdown menu.
2) Use the search fields provided to construct your search query.
Note: Searching by Document ID was phased out of the search functionality in Jan. 2011.
It is important when submitting your search query to filter your results, either by tag, library or file type. This will increase the quality of your search results and minimize the number of results you need to browse through.
(Note: IAAP also maintains a “Frequently Requested Documents” page, in case you’re looking for something many members might be after.)
As an example, let's say you wanted to find a form to transfer your membership from one chapter to another.
The search terms you might enter would include, "transfer membership form."
When you click the search button, your results will be returned.
But first, let's take a look at how many results we would get for this query if we did NOT filter by library. As you can see, the search returned over 1,000 results, which would make it fairly difficult to find the document you are looking for.
However, the same search query using the IAAP International Library filter returns only 175 results, and the top 3 results are very relevant (the document you would need for this example is actually third on the list).
Using Documents
Now that we've found our document, click on the title of the document to open the "View Document" summary page.
Below is a snapshot of what you can find on a "View Document" summary page.
- This section shows who uploaded the document, when it was uploaded and which library it was posted in. Links to the library and member profile are also included.
- A summary of the document you are about to download.
- To download and access the document, click the title or the green down arrow to download the file. (Note: Unless you uplaoded the document yourself, you will not see the red "X" there, which allows the owner of the document to delete the file.
- If you are the owner of the document, you will see a small "Edit" link in the upper-right corner of this section. If you are not the owner, you will not see this link. The edit link is used to add additional documents to the summary page. If two or more documents are related to each other, you might need to add multiple documents, or if a document has changed and you need to reupload it, you can delete the file and then click the Edit link to add the new file back. That way the link and other information remains the same.
In this section you can also add the document to your favorites, which is a great tool if it's a document you might want to find easily again. When a document is added to your favorites, it will appear in a list when you click the "My Favorites" link on the Resources dropdown menu.
You can also rate a document based on how useful you found it, and you can also email a link to the document or add it to your RSS feed setup.
- The links in this section will differ based on whether or not you are the owner of the document. If you are the owner, you can add tags, documents, move to a different library or delete the entire document.
The most commonly used item in this section is the "Permalink" option. Clicking that link will allow you to copy the link to the document to your clipboard, allowing you to paste the link inside an email, blog post or eGroup posting.
- This section provides a summary of how many times the document has been viewed or downloaded, its average rating, number of comments, etc.
Here's a look at the same View Document summary, from the perspective of a member who is NOT the owner of the file. You can see there are fewer options, especially in section 5 of our previous figure.
Don't forget to add the document to your favorites if you think you might need to find the document on a regular basis.
