GETTING STARTED

Please note: You must be at a computer terminal in an FAU Library in order to search and view the testimonies on the Visual History Archive (VHA). Remote access will not work.

Initial VHA Searching

To begin searching you will need to:

• Go to the Archive Web site at http://vha.usc.edu/;

• Register - create a username and password that you will use to log on to the archive;
• Choose either Quick Search or one of the three other search modes:

Quick Search
Search for a word that may appear as a personal name, an indexing keyword (or a synonym) or an interview code.

People Search
Search for a specific person by first and/or last name.

Biographical Search by Experience Group
Search for testimonies of people within nine specific experience groups (i.e., Jewish Survivors, War Crimes Trials Participants, etc.).

Global Keywords Search
Search for segments of video testimonies that discuss specific topics, using more than 50,000 geographic and experiential keywords. This search mode is particularly useful for narrowing a large set of testimonies that you previously saved into a particular subset of interest.

To save a search you will need to:

Select the Save to Project button. This will bring you to the Projects page, where you must choose between the following two options:

• Saving your search results to a new project, that you will be asked to name, or
• Saving your search results to an existing project, which will add the testimonies to an existing project file, not replace the file.

To begin a new search you will need to:

• Select the New Search button on the bottom left corner of the search screen, or
• Select the Search tab from the archive menu across the top of the screen.

Subsequent VHA Searching

To perform subsequent searches once you have logged off the archive, you will need to log on by entering the username and password that you created at registration and choose:

• Quick Search or one of the three other search modes to begin a new search, or
• Projects to view previously saved searches, or
• Projects to search within a previously saved search.

VHA Search Tips

• F11 button improves view.
• Select the F11 button to have the VHA completely fill your monitor screen.

Navigation Buttons

• Use the light blue buttons on the bottom of the screen to move through your search: New Search, Back, Reset, Next, Enter and Save to Search. Use the tabs provided on the top of the screen to navigate the archive: About the Shoah Foundation, Registration, Search, Search History, Projects, Site Map, Help or Feedback.

Search History Provided

• When searching, a Search History section on the left side of the screen indicates the number of testimonies currently resulting from your search. You can make use of this information to guide your search decisions, to further narrow your search if a large number of testimonies appear or to go back and broaden your search if too few testimonies have resulted from your query.

Video segments may take up to 48 hours to access.

When your search results in a video segment that is “Viewable w/i 48 Hrs.” you will see the following message on the left side of your screen: “This video is available but must be transferred to your site's local cache server to be viewed. To request a transfer, click Request Video. Transfers may take up to 48 hours. You will receive an automatic email telling you when the video is available, or if the video transfer failed."

Select Request Testimony to request that the testimony be downloaded from the Institute's central digital video storage location to the local FAU cache. You will be notified by e-mail, at the e-mail address you provided at registration, once the segment is available for you to access.