Archeion workshops, March 2012

Archeion Workshop

Amanda HillArcheion Coordinator

ARCHEION

Archeion

• Ontario’s archive information network• Established in 1999• Holds over 8,000 fonds- and collection-level

descriptions from more than 70 institutions across Ontario

• One of a network of provincial systems feeding in to ArchivesCanada

• Major upgrade in 2011 with a move of all existing information to ICA-AtoM software

Old ARCHEION combined creator information with fonds description

Information about

records

Information about

creator(s)Archival description

Institutional information held elsewhere

Information about

records

Information about

creator(s)Archival institutions

Held in ARCHEION

Held on AAO site

New Archeion’s structure

Online display

Archival institutions

Record creatorsArchival descriptions

Standards-based records

• ISDIAH – International Standard for Describing Institutions with Archival Holdings

• RAD – Rules for Archival Description

• ISAAR-CPF – International Standard for Archival Authority Records - Corporate, Personal, Family

Archival institutions

Archival descriptions

Record creators

Easy to update

Archival institutions

Archival descriptions

Record creators

All these records can be edited by

Archeion contributors

CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS: INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION

Institution records (ISDIAH)

• Minimal records at the moment– Name of institution– Contact details

• Can hold a lot of quite detailed information:– Opening hours– Accessibility – Collecting policy…

Form-based data entry

Click on headings to open section

CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS: AUTHORITY RECORDS

Authority records (ISAAR-CPF)

• Records describing people, organizations, families who created records or were the subject of them

• Created using Biographical sketch/Administrative history fields from existing ARCHEION records

• Can hold additional information, allowed for by the ISAAR-CPF standard

Check existing authority files

• Import from ARCHEION usually worked fine, but occasional issues

• If there was more than one creator associated with a fonds, the biographical/admin information might have been linked with the wrong one

Authority file import issues

• Biographical information was overwritten if a name appears more than once– Not a problem within a single repository– Can be an issue if an archive creator is represented in more

than one repository– Or if records for a single individual exist in both English and

French versions

• Check your own descriptions for anomalies– Original EAD records from the old system have been retained

and information can be retrieved from them, if needed

Creating new authority files

• Log in to Archeion

Authority record editing screen

Mandatory fields

• Type of entity– Corporate body, Family or Person

• Authorized form of name• Dates of existence– Put dates here rather than in the name field

• Description identifier– Leave this blank unless you have a local identifier

for name authority files

Other important fields

• Other forms of name– E.g. maiden names, pseudonyms

• History– Narrative (equivalent to RAD Biographical

Sketch/Administrative History)• Language– Record the language of the authority file

• Source– Record any printed or online sources used in creating

the authority record

Relationships

• Separate authority files can be linked to more than one archival description, saving duplication of information

Record creator

Archival description

Archival description

Relationships between creators

• Links can also be made between authority files

Organization

Organization

Person

Family

Member of

Predecessor of

Founder

of

Categories of relationship

• Hierarchical– Superior/subordinate, owner of/owned by

• Temporal– Over time, e.g. predecessor/successor

• Family• Associative– Any other sort of relationship between entities

Links between authority files

• A link between two authority records can be made in either record

• Once established, the link will automatically appear in the other file

Tips for authority files

• Check that the person/family/organization isn’t already in the system before you start creating one

• You can edit existing authority records, even if you did not create them, but you can’t delete them– Think of the authority files as a community resource– Don’t get too possessive about them

• We don’t want any Wikipedia-style editing wars

• Once you click ‘Create’, the authority file record is live on the Archeion website and visible to Google, even if you have marked it as a draft

CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS: ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTIONS

Archival descriptions

• Form is designed to reflect the fields in the Rules for Archival Description

• ‘Archeion for Archivists’ manual acts as a RAD-refresher for the fields required by Archeion

• It is easier to create authority files for creators of archives before you start on the archival description

Mandatory fields

• Title proper

• Level of description

• Repository

• Name of creator

• Date

• Physical description

• Scope and content

• Language (of materials)

• Restrictions on access

• Finding aids

Creation fields

Creation fields

Dates of creation area

Access points

• Archeion now has a place-name gazetteer and a list of (very general) subject headings

• Start typing a place name or subject and choose it from the drop-down list to add it to your description

Publishing descriptions

• Possible rights in relation to archival descriptions:– Create– Edit– Delete– Publish

• You will generally only have the right to edit, create, delete and publish your own institution’s descriptions

• Rights are customizable for each user of Archeion• Your institution must be an institutional member of

the Archives Association of Ontario

Tips

• You do not have to complete your description in one sitting

• Save your work at any time by clicking the 'Create' button at the bottom of the editing window (it then becomes a ‘Save’ button)

• An archival description is not visible to the public (or to search engines) until you change its status from ‘draft’ to ‘published’

• You can edit your description at any time, before or after publication, to correct it or add new information

More tips

• Be concise• Put key information at the start of longer text

fields, particularly:– History of person/family/corporate body– Scope and content

• Remember you are writing for a global audience– The reader is (probably) not in your building

In your first sentence…

• Include the name, birth and death dates, major occupation, and geographical area of the creator(s) in the biographical sketch/ administrative history.– Adam Lindsay Webb (b. 1879) was a physician who

practised in Brighton, Ontario.

• Give a single sentence overview in the scope and content note.– Fonds consists of photocopies of records created and

received by A.L. Webb, primarily relating to his medical practice.

Remember world-wide context…

Pitfalls

• Be careful when linking your description to your institution and to creators

• It’s easy to accidentally create a new institution or a new creator if you don’t click on the existing one

• Just type a few characters, not the whole name, then click on the name in the list

Adding lower levels of description

Display of lower levels

Information needed at lower levels

• You don’t need to add:– Repository– Creator (unless different

from top level)– Custodial history– Finding aids– (anything which is the same

for the whole fonds)

• You do need:– Title– Dates of creation– Physical description– Scope and content

• Some details are inherited from the fonds or collection description

Adding digital objects

• Digital materials can be added to archival descriptions at any level– You might want an image at fonds- or collection-level

to represent the whole group of records– Or you could associate a digital object from a

description of an item

• You can either upload objects to Archeion (cost implication) or link to objects hosted elsewhere (free)

Adding digital objects

Adding digital objects

Costs

• Artefactual will provide hosting space for digital objects

• AAO will pay for 1 gigabyte of storage space for institutional members

• Any additional space will be paid for by institutions to Artefactual

DEMO

Coordinator contact details

• Amanda Hill• [email protected]• 416-929-4447

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