The Sifter

Glossary Terms

A

About—page that lists short biographies on The Sifter Advisory Board and Development Team

Add New Record—feature that adds a new row to a table so that the user can add information about the new record (this is accessible to logged-in users only)

All Fields—search criteria to help a user specify broader searches. The criteria may include fields such as Title, Organization, Birth Month/Year, Language, Sources, Occupation, etc. The user may use as many fields as needed to perform the search.

Alternate Name—another name for a city, state, country, or region

Author—an author is usually a person, but can also be an organization, institution or group. A full or partial name may be listed along with the gender of the author.

Author ID—a unique numerical ID assigned to an author in the database. Computer generated number.

Assigned Page Number—If work does not start with printed page numbers assign title page as page 1 and go forward from there. Each blank page is counted as a page.

B

Basic Fields—a basic search is a quick search limited to Authors First and Last Name, Pseudonym and comments; Works Genre, Title and Comments; Sections Title Comments; Details Item; Item Translations Item and Translations. At least one word, letter or number is required to perform the search.

Browse—allows the user to look at data in one table (such as author, work, translator, etc.).

Browse/Search—browse and search specific categories

C

Cancel Changes—button that allows a user to cancel any changes made to a table. This is accessible to logged-in users only.

Clear Search—selection allowing the user to clear the current search

Column—One detail

Contact—form a user can use to securely submit questions, comments, or suggestions. The user must enter an email address, name, and message that lists the question, comment, or suggestion. We welcome your comments.

Countries—state name with its alternate name and/or continent

D

Delete Records—permanently delete a row on a table, such as one author on the author table or one editor in the editor table. (This is accessible to logged-in users only)

Details—each detail in the detail table specifies an ingredient, action, material, type of equipment or person as a part of a specific section. The detail ‘egg’ is an ingredient in the section or recipe pecan cookies.

Display Name—related to a city or state. The name that appears in the dropdown list to select when adding location information.

Duplicate Record—feature that allows a user to duplicate the current record in a table. This is accessible to logged-in users only.

E

Edition—specific edition of a work; usually a number and/or improved or similar quality

Editors—an editor can be one or more persons. A full or partial name may be listed along with the gender of the editor(s).

Excel Export—downloads the data on the current listing of the screen results (in batches of up to 100, 200, 500, 1000) for an .xlsx report.

F

FAQs—page with a list of Frequently Asked Questions about The Sifter

Field—one box, or cell, in a spreadsheet. The box at the intersection of a row and column. One bit of information.

Form View—allows the user to see a single record, or row, instead of a list. A toggle switch that the user can set to turn off and on. The default view for a browse/search result is list, or form view set to off. When the form view is ‘on’ a single record result is listed on the form.

G

Google Translation—on the Item Translations page, the translation of an item using translate.google.com

H

Hover Text—toggle switch on the lower toolbar that the user can turn off and on. ‘On’ is the default . When a user moves the cursor over a column header, an additional description pops up. To remove these descriptions, turn the toggle to ‘off.’

I

Item—an individual thing or action, like onions, a whisk, or kneading that can be used for detail. Items not listed can be added by the user.

Item Categories—A group that items can be put into such as Indian spices or herbs.

Item Sub-Categories—a sub-group of the Item Categories, such as medicinal and curring are sub-categories of the category herbs.

Item Translations—this lists a specific item with the item type (action, ingredient, equipment, etc.) the English translation, the foreign language and translation.

J

Jump To—number field where a user can jump to a specific page number; enter the page number; by entering the page number, and pressing the Enter key.

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L

Linked Tables—on the authors, works, sections or details search pages, a button at the bottom of the page allows the user to add search information from the other related tables.

Links—on the header menu, a page that lists food-related websites that may be of use or interest to The Sifter users and members

Login/Register—on the header menu where the user can login to their account or register for a new account

M

Multi-Search—a quick search that shows search results by category, the first 10 from each of the main tables: authors, works, sections, details, items and item translations.

N

News—page that lists articles and news related to The Sifter.

O

Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery—annual weekend conference at which academics, food writers, cooks, and others with an interest in food and culture meet to discuss current issues in food studies and food history

P

Page Info—on the section table, non-Arabic numerals (ii, v, etc.), indicators of sequence that often appear in a preface or table of contents.

Page Size—on table screen footer, where the user can adjust the number of rows shown in a search result and the choices are 100, 200, 500 or 1000. The larger the number the longer it will take for the page to display.

Printed Page Number—the number printed on the page, as different from the assigned page number, which begins on the title page as page 1.

Provenance—history of a particular object, who owned it and where it was kept.

Pseudonym—fictitious name; used by an author, publisher, or editor

Publishers—a person, company, organization or group. A full or partial name may be listed.

Q

Quantity—number or range of numbers

R

Regions—term that can include formal regions and informal ones. Waterways and oceans can also be included

Record—Row (one author, one work & the information associated with only the work, etc.)

S

Save Changes—button that allows a user to save any changes made to a table. A new change may include creating a new record, editing an existing record, or deleting a record from a table. This is accessible to logged-in users only.

Section—section is part of a work such as a chapter, introduction, recipe, illustration etc.

Section Type—see section

Short Name—short name or nickname used by individual or location; usually an author, editor, publisher, or location

Sources—where the work being entered can be physically found

Start Editing—button that switches a user to edit mode. Accessible to logged-in users only.

States—state name with its corresponding alternate name and/or country

Stop Editing—button that returns a user to read-only mode. Accessible to logged-in users only.

T

Table—All the rows and columns on the screen, the results of a search

Terms and Conditions—required User Agreement in order to use The Sifter

Text Export—downloads an .csv file of the search result. This will include everything on the page viewed, as indicated by “Page x of y” in table footer

Text Size—at the bottom of the toolbar, the plus and minus buttons that allow a user to reduce or increase the size of the text on the tables

Title Abbrev—abbreviation of a title; usually a work

Title English—title in English used to search non-English equivalents

Translation— item translated into another language. Google Translate was used to compile most of the word lists.

Translators—usually a person. A full or partial name may be listed along with the gender of the editor.

U

Unicode—universal character encoding standard that assigns a code to every character and symbol in every language in the world. This allows the user to enter characters in almost all languages except some archaic and obsolete scripts such as Mayan Hieroglyphs or Jurchen.

W

Word Wrap—this toggle switch allows the user to see all the text in a field, such as a long title or author last name. The default view of the browse/search result is set to "off" where the ellipses indicate additional text can be viewed.

Work—the book, manuscript, pamphlet being entered. The topics and formats can be varied, cookbooks, bee keeping manuals, fiction, etc.