F
R E Q U E N T L Y 
A S K E D Q
U E S T I O N S
What
is Russian Archives Online?
Where
are these Russian films and photos actually located?
Who
holds the copyrights to the images on RAO?
Can
I download images for my personal/school use?
What
if I want to license (use) an image on RAO?
Why
is "catalogue" spelled that way? I thought it was spelled
"catalog."
Why
doesn't "Search Site" search the catalogue databases?
Why
can't I search the Russian catalogues?
--or--
Why does all the text on my screen turn
into weird symbols?
How
do I install Cyrillic fonts on my computer?
How
do I set-up my Web browser so I can access the Russian-language
catalogue?
Didn't
find what you were looking for? Found an error? Email RAO at rao@abamedia.com
and we will update the F.A.Q. if enough people have the same question.
What
is Russian Archives Online?
RAO
is an online collection of Russian archives showcasing the archival
films, photographs, illustrations, audio recordings, and selected
documents from these often difficult to access archives via the
World Wide Web. RAO is constantly growing as we add additional
databases in both Russian and English, develop new Gallery exhibits
highlighting the archive's collections, and acquire new archive
partners. For the most part, all archives featured on RAO are
public or state institutions which are in no way "owned"
by RAO. Please visit About
RAO for additional information.
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Where
are these Russian films and photos actually located?
It depends on the source of the image. The majority of the images
on RAO are physically located at various state archives in Russia.
Special collections such as the Hoover Institution at Stanford
University house archival material on site in the United States.
For more information about specific archives, please visit the
The Archives section
of RAO.
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Who
holds the copyrights to the images on RAO?
All images are copyrighted by their respective rights-owners and
are not the property of RAO. Any reproduction, distribution, or
use of these images without the specific permission of the archives
and other rights-owners is strictly prohibited. Please visit www.abamedia.com
for more information.
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Can
I download images for my personal/school use?
These
archival materials are provided free of charge for online viewing
and research in order to open the archives and their collections
to the citizens of the world. However, as the costs of preservation,
cataloguing, and digitization continually grow for the archives,
it is through commercial image licensing that these archives will
survive. (Please see The Gallery article on Image
Preservation to understand the efforts involved in preserving
historical images which can be lost forever.) Therefore, we ask
that the images present on RAO not be downloaded and distributed
without permission as this only brings the Russian archives one
step closer to closing their doors due to lack of funds.
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What
if I want to license (use) an image on RAO?
Please
contact abamedia at licensing@abamedia.com or visit www.abamedia.com.
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Why
is catalogue spelled that way?
"Catalogue"
is the accepted international spelling. "Catalog" without
the "ue" is the American spelling.
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Why
doesn't "Search Site" search the catalogue databases?
Search
Site will find any static (always there) pages on the RAO Web
site which contain the word(s) for which you are looking. As the
catalogue databases dynamically create pages which match your
search query, these pages cannot be found using Search Site. Instead
go to Catalogues
and try your search from there.
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Why
can't I search the Russian Catalogues? --or-- Why does all the
text on my screen turn into weird symbols?
RAO's
Russian catalogues require you to setup you browser to read Cyrillic
(Russian) text as well as enable or install a Cyrillic keyboard
to type in Russian. The weird symbols you see are the Cyrillic
characters converted to a Western font (not pretty). See the below
two discussions if you want to setup your computer for Cyrillic.
Otherwise you can search the limited English-language catalogues
to get a feel for what is available.
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How do I install Cyrillic
fonts on my computer?
There are many different Cyrillic fonts available on the Internet
for download. Below are instructions for installing the standard
Windows Cyrillic fonts for Win95/98/NT and for installing the
specific two Cyrillic fonts needed for Macintosh users to access
the RAO online Russian catalogue.
Windows95/98/NT:
You
will enable "Multilanguage Support" on your computer by following
these steps:
-
Go to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove
Programs.
-
Click on "Windows Setup" tab, then click on "Components" tab.
-
Find a line named "Multilanguage Support" and click on the check
box so that it is selected.
-
Click on "Details" button.
-
Find the line of 'Cyrillic language support" and click on the
check box to select it.
-
Click on "OK" and you will return to the previous window.
- Click
on "OK" and this will begin the installation.
- NOTE:
You may need your Windows95 CDROM for the installation. If you
don't have the CD, you will need to go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/lang.exe
and download this file. Save it in a location you can find,
go to the file folder location and double click on the file
which will self-extract. Now, when the installation asks for
the Windows95 CDROM, click on " browse" and go to the location
of this folder.
-
To be able to type in Cyrillic, you will need to switch between
Latin and Cyrillic keyboards by pressing "Left-Alt" and "Shift"
at the same time. You should see "En" switch to "Ru" in the
system tray on the bottom right edge of the Windows desktop.
Macintosh:
You will first need to install Cyrillic fonts and a Cyrillic keyboard
layout by following these steps:
-
Download the following files which will either be decompressed
automatically or will need to be opened with Stuffit Expander:
ER Bukinist Macintosh,
ER Kurier Macintosh,
and Mac keyboard layouts (keyboards
by Slava Paperno). The freeware fonts were created by Gavin
Herf. You may wish to download these additional fonts if you
will be visiting other Russian sites: ER
Bukinist 1251, ER Bukinist
KOI8, ER Kurier 1251,
ER Kurier KOI8.
-
Next drag the font suitcases located in the font folders
onto the top of the closed Macintosh HD > System Folder icon
on your hardrive. A dialogue box will come up asking if they
should be installed in the Fonts folder.
- Click
"OK". Click "OK" to the next dialogue box
if it comes up which states that these fonts won't be available
until the current programs have been restarted (something like
that).
-
Next drag the keyboard layouts onto the Macintosh HD
> System Folder > System icon. Click OK on the dialogue
boxes which come up.
- Restart
your computer. You might want to first bookmark this site.
-
To switch to the Cyrillic keyboard you just installed either
press Control+Option+Space for OS 7.x, or click the keyboard
icon at the upper right portion of the Mac desktop (will likely
be showing an American or other national flag) and select the
new keyboard for OS 8.x. Learning the keyboard is another matter......The
best suggestion is to switch to a Cyrillic keyboard, then use
the Key Caps utility under the Apple Menu to see how the new
fonts map onto the keyboard.
Continue
on to the next discussion.
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How
do I setup my Web browser so I can access the Russian-language
catalogue?
You
will need to have installed Cyrillic fonts and enabled/installed
a Cyrillic keyboard layout before preceding with browser setup
See the above discussion for help. At this moment, we have instructions
for Windows95/98/NT and Macintosh System 7.1 and higher (including
8.x) detailed below.
Win3.1: please visit http://www.free.net/Docs/cyrillic/cwww_eng.html#tune4-32
for help with this issue.
If
you have any difficulties with any of these procedures, please
visit ReesWeb at http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/reesweb/Soft/softind.html
for additional information.
To
configure your browser to view the new Cyrillic fonts:
( Cyrillic encoding works best with Netscape 3.x and above or
Internet Explorer 4 and above.)
Netscape
1:
-
Go to: Options > Preferences > Fonts.
-
For the Latin1 encoding select the Proportional and Fixed fonts.
Netscape
2:
-
Go to Options > General Preferences > Fonts.
-
For the Latin2 encoding, select "ER Bukinist KOI-8" as the Proportional
font and "ROI-K8-Courier" as the Fixed font.
-
For the Korean encoding select "ER Bukinist 1251" as the Proportional
font and "ER Kurier 1251" as the Fixed font.
-
Now once the fonts are setup, all you have to do to view the
catalogue pages is to go to Options > Document Encoding and
choose "Korean". This doesn't make sense but it works.
Netscape
3:
- Go
to Options > General Preferences > Fonts.
-
For the Cyrillic(KOI8-R) encoding select "ER Bukinist KOI-8"
as the Proportional font and "ROI-K8-Courier" as the Fixed font.
-
For the Cyrillic or Cyrillic(CP-1251win) encoding select "ER
Bukinist 1251" as the Proportional font and "ER Kurier 1251"
as the Fixed font.
-
Now once the fonts are setup, all you have to do to view the
catalogue page is to go to Options > Document Encoding and
choose Cyrillic(Win1251).
Netscape
4 (Communicator):
This
version handles Cyrillic fonts differently and may already be
setup for you. If you can automatically view the Russian pages
you are ready to go. If not, Follow these instructions to setup
Netscape 4.
Win95/98/NT:
- Go
to Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts.
- Select
the Cyrillic encoding and check to see that the Variable font
is "Arial" and the Fixed font is "Courier New", if not, then
choose these fonts and click OK.
-
Once the fonts have been selected, to view the catalog pages,
just click View > Encoding > Cyrillic (Windows 1251).
Macintosh:
-
Go to Edit > Preferences > Appearance > Fonts.
- Select
the Cyrillic encoding and check to see that the Variable font
is "ER Bukinist Macintosh" and the Fixed font is "ER Kurier
Macintosh", if not, then choose these fonts and click OK.
-
Once the fonts have been selected, to view the catalog pages,
just click View > Encoding > (MacCyrillic).
Internet
Explorer 4 & 5:
Win95/98/NT:
- Go
to Edit > Preferences. Select Languages/Fonts from the list.
- In
the Fonts box, select Cyrillic (Windows) from the drop down
box labeled Character Set. Select the Proportional font "Arial"
and the Fixed font "Courier New" and click OK.
-
Once the fonts have been selected, to view the catalog pages,
go to View > Character Set. Select
the Cyrillic (Win 1251) encoding.
Macintosh:
- Unfortunately,
at this time Internet Explorer is not supported. You may try
to set it up using the Netscape preferences as a reference,
but initial tests were negative. If you successfully get the
catalogue working please drop us an email. Please consider using
Netscape Navigator or Communicator instead until we solve this
problem.
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