Overview of authoring collections

What is a collection?

A collection builds an ordered sequence of modules . If you think of modules as individual building blocks, then collections are the things you can build out of those blocks - in this case textbooks, courses, lab manuals, journal issues, and so on. When viewed online, each module will be displayed as a separate web page with links allowing you to move between pages sequentially or jump to a specific point using the table of contents. In PDF format, modules in a collection are combined to form a single document that can be read as a book.

As a collection author, you are free to use any combination of published modules from the content repository, including content created by others. The collection composer allows you to arrange those modules in any order, create "chapters" or other hierarchical structures, and rename modules in order to give you complete control over the organization of the content. Once published, readers can access your collection as a free online ebook (available through the website), download a free PDF copy of your collection for printing or sharing, or even order a low-cost printed version of the text through our print-on-demand partner.

Creating collections

Let's imagine you want to make a collection with the following structure of its contents:

Creating a new collection is similar to creating a new module . You can create a new link from the "Create New Item" dropdown in one of your work areas , or you can check the "Create a new collection" link on the MyCNX home page:

After accepting the license, you will be asked to enter some basic information, or metadata, about your collection before getting started. (If you haven't already selected a work area in which to work on the collection, you will be asked to do so.) The basic metadata include:

• Title (required) A title for the collection
• Language (required) The primary language used in the collection
• Collection Subtype A subtype that reflects the intended use of the collection, such as Course or Report
• Subject(s) The subject categories that apply to the collection
• Keywords Terms that describe the most important topics in the collection
• Summary A brief description of the collection. You may markup the summary section with inline CNXML tags.

Click the Next>> button. The metadata entries are saved and the "Contents" tab displays with the title of the collection. This tab is where you do the actual assembly of the collection.

Editing collections

Once you have opened a new or adapted collection within one of your Work Areas, you will need to edit the collection to add modules and other collection-wide parameters. Therecommended sequence to perform these operations in is described in this module and appears in the following list:

1. Arrange the collection contents. Edit how the title and links of the modules will appear when viewed within the context of the collection.
2. Edit the metadata to enter the appropriate search keywords and the collection title.
3. Edit the collection roles . This sets the roles for the collection itself, but does not change the roles of the modules included in the collection.
4. Set the collection parameters .
5. Preview the collection online.
6. Publish the collection.