Project - If NYU’s Manifold instance is like a library, think of Projects like books on a shelf. That is, Projects are the main containers of material on Manifold and can be structured according to a variety of publication needs. A Project can be any combination of Texts and multimedia materials, including a single text with many chapters (like in a critical edition), a collection of multiple texts and/or resources (like an exhibition catalog), and more!
Project Collection - Extending the metaphor of a digital library, Project Collections are the shelves that Projects reside on – except that Projects can exist as part of multiple Project Collections at once! Project Collections group Projects in a named container with one another on NYU Manifold’s homepage. Each Project Collection has its own homepage that can include collection-specific imagery and descriptions. Unlike Project Subjects (discussed below), Project Collections at NYU organize Projects according to information about their creation rather than their content matter (e.g., “Dual Degree Student Projects" is a Project Collection, while “Fiction” is not).
User - Users refer to those who are actively engaging with content on a Manifold instance—reading, annotating, following projects, managing an instance, creating new projects, or managing existing ones. User accounts are made when someone first signs up to an instance or when an existing Administrator creates an account on their behalf. You can be primarily classified either as a Reader or Project Creator depending on whether they have permissions to create or modify Projects on NYU Manifold.
Reader - This is the default user role when you create an account on NYU Manifold. When logged in, a Reader can highlight, annotate, comment, make use of sharing functionalities, customize email notifications, and create or join Reading Groups. Readers don’t have automatic access to the Admin Mode, but they can be granted certain permissions to perform certain actions in the backend. Readers can also be classified as Project or Issue Authors, which distinguishes their interactions with Texts from other readers.
Project Creator - In this role, you can manage your Projects, Journals, and Issues without being able to affect NYU Manifold as a whole or the work of other users. Project Creators can access the Admin Mode and modify all elements of the Projects, Journals, and Issues they’ve created. Likewise they have the authority to extend permissions to other users over those Projects and Issues they manage. Additionally, Project Creators can create new and modify existing Maker Records for their Projects; however, they cannot delete any Maker Record, even those they created. Project Creators can view Project-level Manifold analytics but not instance-wide reports.
Editor - Editors with permissions granted can access all Manifold analytics, create, modify, or delete Projects, Journals, Issues, Maker records, and an installation’s Pages, regardless of who originally created them. Editors can also enable other users the ability to modify specific projects through a Project or Issue’s Access sidebar. They essentially have all the permissions of a Project Creator, except for the ability to create new Projects.
Admin Mode - Otherwise known as the “backend,” Admin Mode allows Project Creators to interact with and add to their Projects or parts of their Projects (including Texts and Resources!) behind the scenes. This view can be accessed only when you have received Creator permissions from NYU Libraries (see “Requesting a creator account” in the Getting Started in Manifold LibGuide for more on this) by clicking on the “Enter Admin Mode” button on the top right hand side of NYU Manifold pages. Once in Admin Mode, you can see your Manifold Dashboard displaying all the Projects, Texts, Resources, and other items you have created or have permission to edit in NYU Manifold. You will always know when you are in Admin Mode because the screen background is darker than the Reader View. Important Note: it can be tricky to remember exactly what item in Manifold you are viewing or editing in Admin Mode (e.g., whether it’s a Text, a Project, or a Journal). Be sure to check the title in the white title for your object at the top of the page to confirm that you are editing the right part of your Project.
Maker Record - A person’s Maker Record keeps track of all of their metadata, including their Author and/or Contributor roles, across NYU Manifold. Maker Records only appear in the Admin Mode of Manifold. When EPUBs or other files for a Text are ingested, Manifold will automatically create new Maker Records for the authors included in the file metadata (if they are listed). Importantly, Manifold does not require Maker Records for either Authors or Contributors to belong to a registered Manifold User account. This means that a User with access permissions can list Authors or Contributors to a Text or Project – automatically creating a Maker Record for them – even if those Authors or Contributors do not have Manifold Accounts themselves.
Author - The primary creative role for a given Project or Text. Author(s) can be specified or edited in the backend metadata for a work. Once an Author has been added, their name and profile avatar (if added) will appear under the Project or Text in the landing page and library display.
Contributor - At this time, Manifold doesn’t allow for nuanced creative roles like “Editor” or “Translator” for a Project or Text, so “Contributor” serves as the term for any person involved in a work that isn’t listed as an Author.
Blocks - Every Project in Manifold is composed of a Hero Block and Content Blocks collecting Markdown content, Metadata for the Project, Recent Activity in the Project’s backend, Resources added to the Project, a Table of Contents, and Texts within the Project. Journals will only include a Hero Block, Content Blocks collecting its Volumes and Issues, and a Metadata Block containing information about the whole Journal.
Hero Block - This block appears at the top of a Project’s or Journal’s homepage and contains the title, a description, cover and background images, Calls-to-Action, and external Social Links. In short, the Hero Block presents all the initial, must-see information for your Project, so be sure to be concise and welcoming when choosing the information to display here.
Calls-to-Action - Within your Hero Block, you can provide buttons to link to external or internal URLs and/or to allow readers to download Texts or Resources. It may be helpful for Readers, especially students, to have Buttons or Links in the Hero Block that allow them to start reading a Text, access an external associated website, see the table of contents and/or provide the option to download a Project’s Texts, Resources, or other files you’ve uploaded.
Social Links - If your Project or Journal has a social media presence you can add it to your Hero Block. You can add hashtags or link to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter/X handles.
Content Block - If the Hero Block is the “header” of a Project’s landing page, the Content Blocks make up the actual body of a Project. You can include as many or as few Content Blocks as you wish in a Project, and not all of your Content Blocks need to be displayed on a Project’s landing page. There are six different kinds of Content Blocks that can be included in a Project:
Markdown Block - Markdown is a markup language, and a markdown content block allows you to enter blocks of text into your Project’s landing page. A Markdown Block can be useful for adding instructions, an assignment, or other information you would like to include on your home page. Each Project can have as many Markdown Blocks as desired.
Metadata Block - The Metadata Block will display the metadata that is entered into your Project’s Metadata menu from the backend. The Project’s metadata cannot be edited from the landing page display, but you can choose whether or not to display it on your homepage by adding or removing it from the Layout section of the Project in Admin Mode. In most cases, we recommend including the metadata on your homepage, and only one Metadata Block can appear on the homepage per Project.
Recent Activity Block - The Recent Activity block displays the six most recent activity records for a Project. Activities appear as tiles indicating when components were added to the Project. If a Project contains more than six activity records, this block will display a button that links to the full, paginated list of activity in a view of its own.
Resources Block - The Resources Block displays, as clickable tiles, the ten most recently updated Project Resources in a Project, accompanied by a link to the Project’s Resource library. This block’s title can be modified in Admin Mode using the Title field, and a description can be added in the Description field that will appear beneath the title on the landing page. Project Collections can also be displayed in Resources Blocks.
Table of Contents Block - The Table of Contents (or ToC) Block renders the navigational table of contents for a specific Project Text, with each listing functioning as a link to that Text section in the Manifold Reader. Importantly, each of these blocks corresponds to one Text (either on a Text landing page or on a Project landing page); you cannot have a ToC Block navigating multiple Texts, and you can only display one ToC Block on a Project’s landing page. Every Text, however, can have its own ToC Block on its respective landing page. Manifold populates a ToC block for each Text by default when ingesting a Text file based on its navigational hierarchy (with EPUBs or HTML) or by its header structure (with other Rich Text editors). However, Project Creators can edit or add Table of Contents manually in Admin Mode as well. This includes deciding how specific (or “deep”) the Table of Contents should extend within a Text (e.g., parts, chapters, paragraphs, etc.).
Texts Block - The Text Block displays Project Texts as individual entries in a list. The block can be configured to include Author names, subtitles, system dates, descriptions, and cover images for each list entry. However, there is no ability to display Contributors in a Project’s Text Blocks at this time.
Text - Texts refer to written content that is displayed in the Manifold Reader and is available as a base for highlighting and annotating by Users. Each Text belongs to a specific Project, and Projects can contain many Texts. Similarly, Texts can contain one or more sections (i.e., chapters, articles, etc.).
Ingest - Ingesting a Text in Manifold refers to the process of adding a Text or a Text section to Manifold from an already existing source file or URL formatted in reflowable EPUBs, HTML, Markdown, Microsoft DOCX Word Documents, or Google Docs. During ingestion, Manifold runs a series of transformations (e.g., converting the document to HTML, adding text nodes, managing styles) that make possible the various features and functionalities on the platform’s frontend. Note that it is important to use Rich Text Headings and HTML tags in your source files according to best practices for accessibility and how you would like them to appear in Manifold.
Manifold Editor - The editor available in the Admin Mode for individual Texts in Manifold. With the Manifold Editor, instead of having to re-ingest files to make edits to Texts, you can simply make adjustments to existing content in the Manifold Admin Mode. This is helpful for minor edits, but is not recommended for drafting Texts, especially since Manifold has no autosave.
Resource - Resources are supplementary materials that you can add to your Project to provide context, related artifacts, and links to other materials. They can be added as annotations to passages in a Text, function as independent objects of exploration, and/or be curated into Resource Collections, e.g., by topic, section of Text, or syllabus unit. There are 10 kinds of Resources that can be added in Manifold: Image, Video, Audio, File, Link, PDF, Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Interactive. Each of these Resource types has their own formatting requirements and display options. To learn more about adding Resources to your Project, see “Creating in Manifold.”
Resource Collection - Manifold Resources can be curated into groupings or “Resource Collections.” Resource Collections can be useful if you’d like readers to be able to browse Resources by topic, section of Text, or syllabus unit. Resource Collections within each Project appear on the Resources content block of a Project’s landing page. Just like Resources, Resource Collections can also be added to passages of Text as an annotation.
Journal - A Manifold Journal is the framework that groups and contextualizes serial Manifold Projects as interrelated journal Issues and collected Volumes under one banner. A Journal’s homepage displays basic information about publication, its frequency, editorial board, copyright and submission information, and so forth, as well as providing a listing of its Volumes and Issues. Like Projects, Journals can be assigned Subjects and Tags in their metadata (but Journals cannot be added to Project Collections).
Issue - Issues are Manifold Projects that can be collected into Volumes or exist independently as a consecutively numbered series in a Journal. To meet the needs of serial publications, Issues have more editing options available to them and render slightly differently than standard Projects (for example, Issues in Manifold can only be accessed through the interface for the Journal to which they belong and can’t be added to Project Collections).
Manifold Projects can be created as Journal Issues and existing Projects can be transformed into Journal Issues; HOWEVER, once a Project has been converted into an Issue, it cannot be reverted to a standard Project. Be very careful when converting an existing Project into a Journal Issue.
Volume - For Journals that aggregate issues into Volumes, each Volume will also have its own dedicated landing page, showcasing the various Issues of which it is composed. Creating a new Volume automatically updates the Journal’s Volume count, adds a Volume container (to collect Issues) on the Journal’s landing page, and updates the Journal navigational menu with a breadcrumb to the new Volume, and creates a Volume landing page.
Subjects - Manifold Subjects come from a preset list of content areas and themes maintained by NYU Libraries. Compared to Project Collections which relate to the origin or context for a Project, think of a Subject as characterizing a Project’s thematic content. Readers can select from Subject lists to view Projects and Journals associated with each Subject, and Creators can select Subject(s) to associate with their Project, Journal, Volume, or Issue from the dropdown menu in the Admin Mode. Please contact us if you have a suggestion for a Subject that would match your Project and other Projects you see on NYU Manifold.
Tags - Like a Project’s Subjects, Tags provide a helpful way of classifying a Project so that it will appear in searches alongside other Projects with the same tag. Unlike Subjects, new Tags can be created by any user who has permission to modify a Project and can be used to add further richness to the existing subject classification of a Project. There is no limit to the number of Tags that can be added to a Project or used within NYU Manifold.
Reading Group - Reading Groups are a way to build curated collections of content, such as a course reader, from Projects and Journals in NYU Manifold that readers may annotate, highlight, and comment on as a cohort. Reading Groups are particularly useful for classroom and peer-review use cases. Reading Groups can also be used to annotate, highlight, and comment on any Text on your Manifold instance. Anyone with a Reader account can create public, private, and anonymous Reading Groups; invite others to join their groups; manage group membership; or add content from NYU Manifold to their groups. Below are a few User Roles associated with Reading Groups:
Creator - Only one per Reading Group; Moderator by default; Can assign other Reading Group Members as Moderators; Specifies initial privacy settings of the Reading Group during creation; Receives initial URL or group code for inviting new Members
Moderator - Unlimited number per group; Assigned by Creator or other Moderators; Can edit or remove information for Members and can remove Members from a Reading Group (who will not be notified)
Member - Unlimited number per group; Can annotate and view Texts within a Reading Group based on permission settings