Managing Your Group

Last Updated, March 22, 2023.

A Group is the basic organizational unit in the CTDA System.

In Isandora-speak, a Group is an agent (institution, organization, etc.) that is responsible for a set of content in the CTDA. 

In plain talk, it is the Member’s main collection. For example: The My Historical House Group would have a My Historical House Collection as well as any other collection established below the My Historical House Collection.

When you join, CTDA Staff will do the following things for you: 

  • Create your group
  • Create a Group "Top Level Collection" after you supply the name of that collection
  • Assign the Primary Contact designated in the Primary Contact Form (or some other designated person) as the Group Administrator. 
  • Create user accounts for your staff who will be using the system
  • Assign them to your group.  

After that, you are free to configure and arrange collections and items in your group as you wish.

The Group Administrator can create sub-groups, add or subtract group members, assign permissions to group members, and can set the group’s display defaults.

  • Click on the Groups tab on the left-hand administrative menu to see a list of all the Groups of which you are a member.
  • Click on the "Edit" link on the "Operations" column of the Group you wish to Edit. You will only see "Edit" as an operation if you are a Group Administrator.

Creating Collections in your Group. 

  • Remember, a Group is an organizational entity, it should have only collections in it, not items. 
  • Note: If you want to create multiple collections or objects at once, use Spreadsheet Ingest.
  • You can create an object from ANY page where you see the “Create” button in the Group Header. 
  • Clicking on “Create”  will bring you to the “Create a Repository Item” Metadata form. 
  • Start filling in the form, when you get to “Content Type” choose “Collection” and when you get to the  “Collection(s)” field enter the name of the Top Level Collection for your Group (or any other collection in your group). The system will NOT automatically put your item in a collection. You MUST enter a value into the Collection(s) field. 
  • Once you are finished filling in the fields, click “Save” at the top of the form and your collection is ready for content. More information on this topic is available at: Adding Objects to the Repository One at a Time.