Quirow

The demo archive

A working archive, open to anyone.

The Quirow Demo Archive is a fictional repository built from real objects released by museum open-access programs: photographs, maps, samplers, botanical studies and trade cards, arranged into collections and series and described to DACS. Look at it from either side.

The public site

Browse it as a visitor

The archive’s own website: exhibitions, the collections, and the full archival description behind every object. No account needed.

Open demo.quirow.com

The admin

Work in it as the archivist

One click opens a private copy of the archive that only you can see. Describe a record, build an exhibit, publish it, and preview it as the public would. It disappears after 24 hours.

Before you start

It’s your own private copy.

  • Nobody else can see it. Each visitor gets a separate copy of the archive, and nothing published in it goes public.
  • It disappears after 24 hours, with everything added to it. Come back in the same browser to pick up where you left off; signing out ends your access to it.
  • Uploads are capped at 10 MB a file and 50 MB in all. Even so, it’s a demo: keep anything private out of it.
  • A few settings are locked, such as custom HTML in the site chrome.

A five-minute tour

Describe, exhibit, publish.

  1. 1

    Open a collection

    Items opens on the collection tree. Expand a collection, pick a series, and every record beneath it is one click away, with its images attached at the level they belong to.

  2. 2

    Describe something

    Open a record and choose Edit record, or start a new one. The DACS guide sits beside the form, required elements are marked, and name, subject and genre terms come from live Library of Congress lookups.

  3. 3

    Build an exhibit

    Under Pages, open one of the three exhibitions. Drag blocks into a new order, add an item card for a record you described, and rewrite the curatorial text.

  4. 4

    Publish it

    Set a record or a page to Published and save. A record missing an element DACS requires is stopped before anything is written, with the missing fields named.

  5. 5

    See what a visitor would see

    Under Pages, choose Preview. It renders your exhibit exactly as the public site would, while your copy stays private. demo.quirow.com shows the original.

Prefer to look without signing in? The public site is open to everyone. Questions about what you saw, or about using Quirow for your own collection, go to hello@quirow.com. Or read how it works.