Archival Descriptions¶

Add a new archival description¶

This section contains instructions on how to Add a new top level archival description (also known as a parent record), and how to add a new child description (or child record) via two different methods

Add a new top level description¶

A new archival description can be added at any time, from anywhere in the application, via the main menu available to authenticated (i.e. logged in) AtoM users with the appropriate privileges (such as contributors, editors, and administrators). For more information on User roles and types of users in AtoM see: User roles.

Note

You must be logged in to be able to create a new archival description in AtoM. See: Log in.

To create a new archival description:

1. In the main menu located in the header bar, click the “Add” menu and select “Archival description” from the drop-down menu.

2. AtoM takes you to a blank edit page for data entry.

Note

The edit page that appears will depend on the default template set in the application. When first installed, the default template in AtoM is the ISAD(G) (General International Standard for Archival Description) template. Administrators can change the default template to any of the other 4 supported standards (RAD, DACS, Dublin Core, or MODS via Admin > Settings > Default template. For more information, see: Settings.

3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on an information area to access the fields grouped under it. Enter data as required.

4. Note that new lower levels of description (i.e. children) can be created on the fly without leaving the top-level or parent description you are currently creating. For more information, see below, Add a new child description.

5. You can quit the create process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any data already entered will not be saved, and no new record will be created. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Create” will also result in no new record being created.
6. To save the new record, click the “Create” button located in the button block at the bottom of the record.

Note

The default status of a newly created archival description is DRAFT. Draft records are not visible to unauthenticated (i.e. not logged in) users such as researchers. Under the Administration area of the archival description, users with publication privileges (see: User roles) can select PUBLISHED as the new status of the archival description, making it available for read access to the public.

Tip

Administrators can also change the default publication status of new records throughout the application via Admin > Settings > Global > Default publication status. For more information, see: Settings.

Back to top

Add a new child description¶

A child descriptions is an archival description that is part of a larger hierarchy, often a fonds or collection. A child record refers to a description of the archival unit that is one level of description lower than the current unit - for example, if a series belongs to a fonds, the series is the child record of the fonds. AtoM helps users understand the context of the materials by depicting the current record’s position in the treeview, which can also be used for navigation (see: Context menu)

There are two ways to add a new child description in AtoM - Method 1 allows a user to add a new child record “on the fly” while creating a top-level description (or parent record), but these records should be considered stubs or placeholders until they can be returned to and supplemented with further description. Method 2 explains how to create a full child description at any time.

Method 1: “On the fly”¶

AtoM includes a data entry element in the first information area of the archival description edit page that allows users to generate lower levels of description to a parent record without leaving the current edit page.

This area is located in:

• The Identity area of the ISAD(G) and DACS templates
• The Statement of responsibility area of the RAD template
• The Elements area of the Dublin Core and MODS templates

Note that this method is not meant to replace more granular description - it allows a user to create a sort of skeleton structure to the whole of the description (such as a fonds or collection), which can improve supplement an archival arrangement workflow - the child descriptions can then be supplemented later.

Fields provided for creating lower levels of description “on the fly” via the parent description’s edit page include:

• Identifier (i.e., reference number)
• Level (of description)
• Title

Tip

You can add as many levels as needed at one time; for example, to add multiple series to a fonds or collection, fill in the fields under the “Add new child levels” and add as many lower levels as desired. When the record is saved, you will be able to see the new child records in the context menu.

Method 2: Adding a full child description¶

Full child descriptions can be added to an archival description at any time (by users with sufficient edit privileges) by navigating to the description to which you would like to add a child (the parent description).

First, navigate to the parent archival description to which you wish to add a child description. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.

Note

You must be logged in to be able to create a new archival description in AtoM. See: Log in.

1. In the view page of the parent archival description, scoll to the bottom of the record to the button block and click the “Add new” button.

2. You will be redirected to a new archival description edit page. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on an information area to access the fields grouped under it. Enter data as required.

Important

It is important to note that after clicking on the “Add new” record button, the edit archival description template will appear, but no reference is made to the parent archival description. When you save your record, however, you will be able to see the relationship expressed in the treeview, located in the context menu on the left-hand side of the view page.

3. Enter appropriate information into the template for the lower-level description, and remember to select the level of description.
4. Note that you can add further children to this lower level of description as you work, via The “On the fly” method described above.

5. You can quit the create process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any data already entered will not be saved, and no new child record will be created. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Create” will also result in no new record being created.
6. To save the new child record, click the “Create” button located in the button block at the bottom of the record.

After clicking “Save” you will be redirected to the view page for the new child description. You can see the relationship to the parent record expressed in the :ref:` context menu <context-menu>`. For more information on the Context menu and the treeview in AtoM, see: Context menu, and specifically, Treeview. See also: Treeview quick search.

Back to top

Edit an existing archival description¶

An authenticated (i.e. logged in) user with edit privileges can edit or update an archival description at any time. For more information on edit privileges and user roles see: User roles. For information on logging in, see: Log in.

To edit an existing archival description:

1. First, navigate to the archival description you wish to edit. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Switch from view mode to edit mode by clicking the “Edit” button in the button block, or by clicking on one of the information area headings; this takes you to the record’s edit page.
3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on an information area to access the fields grouped under it. If you’ve clicked on an an area header directly, the edit page will load with that area open.

4. Add and/or revise data as required.
5. You can quit the create process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; any changes made will not be saved. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Save” will also result in no changes being saved to the archival description.
6. To save your edits, click the “Save” button located in the button block at the bottom of the record.

You will be redirected to the view page for the edited archival description, where you can review your work.

Publish an archival description¶

All new and imported archival descriptions in AtoM are automatically saved as draft records. This means that users who are not authenticated (i.e. logged in) cannot view these records.

Note

Administrators can change the default publication status, via Admin > Settings. For more information, see: Settings.

Publication status is inherited from the highest level of description, meaning that changes to the publication status of the parent record will affect the publication status of all child records. For example, when a fonds description is changed from draft to published, all child levels within the fonds (series, files, items, etc.) are automatically changed as well.

If a contributor (i.e. a logged in user without permission to publish descriptions - see: User roles) edits a published record, the record’s status is automatically changed back to draft, unless the default publication status has been changed to published.

Changing a record’s status to published allows unauthenticated users such as researchers the ability to see the record, i.e. read access is granted to the public. Draft records are not viewable by unauthenticated users (i.e. those not logged in).

To publish an existing archival description

1. Navigate to the record you wish to publish. For more information on navigation in AtoM, see: Access content
2. Switch from view mode to edit mode by clicking “Edit” button in the button block, or by clicking on one of the information area headings; this takes you to the record’s edit page.

3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on the Administration area heading to expand it and make changes.

4. In the drop-down menu underneath the subheading “Publication status”, select “published”.

5. Scroll down to the button block at the bottom of the edit page and click the “Save” button.

The archival description, and any lower levels of description associated with it, will now be published - public users who are not logged will now be granted read access to view (but not edit) the record(s). The record(s) will also be discoverable to public users via Browse or Search

Back to top

Duplicate an existing archival description¶

To simplify the description workflow when working with many similar descriptions (such as, in some cases, many items in a collection), AtoM includes the ability to generate a duplicate record from an existing archival description, and then edit it to make necessary changes. This can allow a user to avoid unnecessarily repeating data entry.

To duplicate an existing archival description:

1. First, navigate to the archival description you wish to edit. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. At the bottom of the archival description, click the “Duplicate” button located in the button block.

3. You will be redirected to a new screen with an edit page of an archival description open.
4. The new edit page provides a warning at the top to indicate that it is a duplicated record.

5. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on an information area to access the fields grouped under it. You will note that these will be populated with the exact same data found in the original archival description - you can now make any edits or revisions necessary.
6. You can quit the create process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; no new record will be created. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Create” will also result in no new record being created.
7. To save the duplicate as a new record, click the “Save” button located in the button block at the bottom of the record.

Back to top

Link related archival descriptions in AtoM to each other¶

Many AtoM descriptive templates include a free text field, derived from the related content standards (for more information, see: Descriptive standards and Data entry / templates) that will allow users to describe allied or related materials:

However, as of AtoM 2.1, a new auto-complete field has been added to the edit page of each of the above standards, that will allow users to link an archival description to another related description held in AtoM. This linking is reciprocal - once it is added on one description, a link back to the first resource will also appear on the related description. Linking is managed via an auto-complete field: users begin to type the identifier or title of a resource, and as they type, the auto-complete drop-down will display matching results.

In each standards template, the linking field appears just below the free-text fields listed in the table above. It is labelled as “Related descriptions” in the ISAD and DACS templates, and as “Related materials” in the RAD template.

In this example, the “Related description” linking field is shown below the ISAD 3.5.3 Related units of description field in the ISAD template.

To link an archival description to another description in AtoM:

1. First, navigate to the archival description where you wish to add a link. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Switch from view mode to edit mode by clicking “Edit” button in the button block, or by clicking on one of the information area headings; this takes you to the record’s edit page.

3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on an area header to expand it and make changes. Use the table above to determine which information area will have the related descriptions field, based on which descriptive template (ISAD, RAD, DACS) you are using. For more information on working with content standards and descriptive templates in AtoM, see:
   • Descriptive standards
   • Change the display standard
   • Data entry / templates
   • Default templates

4. In the Related descriptions field, begin typing either the identifier, full reference code, or title of the archival description to which you would like to create a link. As you type, the field’s drop-down menu will provide auto-complete matching results. When you see the description to which you would like to create a link, click on it in the drop-down menu.

5. You can repeat this process to add multiple links to different descriptions at the same time.

6. To remove a linked description, place your cursor over the bullet next to the linked description - it will change into an X. Click the X to remove the link to the related description.

7. When you are finished adding or editing your related descriptions, click “Save” in the button block at the bottom of the edit page. Alternately, if you click “Cancel” or navigate away from the page without saving, none of your changes will be saved.

8. Upon saving, AtoM will redirect you to the view page for your archival description. You will be able to see a link to the related description in the relevant information area of your display template.

9. Similarly, AtoM will automatically add a reciprocal link back to the original description on the view and edit pages of the related resource. You can edit or remove the link by entering edit mode on either description, and following instructions to remove a link in Step 6, above.

Back to top

Change the display standard¶

AtoM’s archival description edit templates are based on known standards used within the cultural heritage community. For more information on standards used in AtoM, see: Descriptive standards.

You can change the display standard for an individual archival description in the adminstration area while editing an archival description. This allows you to choose a different description template per archival description than the template you have chosen in your AtoM settings. This includes at different levels of the same archival unit - so for example, if you have an image collection, you could create a fonds-level description using the ISAD template, and then display all of the item-level image descriptions using the Dublin core template.

You can also choose to have the newly selected display standard be inherited by all child records (for example, all the file-level children beneath a series) if desired, or you can simply change the current description. Instructions are included below.

To change the display template of a description in AtoM:

1. First, navigate to the archival description you wish to edit. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Switch from view mode to edit mode by clicking “Edit” button in the button block, or by clicking on one of the information area headings; this takes you to the record’s edit page.

3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on the Administration area heading to expand it and make changes.

4. In the Administration area, click the drop-down menu labelled “Display standard”. You will see a list of all display standards for archival descriptions available in AtoM. For more information on standards available in AtoM, see: Descriptive standards. For specific information on each standard, see: Data entry / templates.

5. If you are currently using the default display template (see: settings), the field will be blank until you select a different template. Select the display standard you would like to use from the drop-down menu.
6. If you would like all lower levels of description (e.g. child records) to adopt the new display standard as well, click on the check-box below the template drop-down.
7. You can quit the create process at any time by clicking the “Cancel” button in the button block; no new record will be created. Note that simply navigating away from the page by any other means, without first clicking “Create” will also result in no new record being created.
8. To save the record and display it with the new standards template, click the “Save” button located in the button block at the bottom of the record.

Back to top

Add alternative identifiers to an archival description¶

As of AtoM 2.1, users can now add alternative identifiers to descriptions using the ISAD(G), RAD, or DACS standards-based description templates. This can be useful for keeping track of legacy identifiers or other relevant alphanumeric strings associated with the identification of your records, such as a bar code. To learn more about the description standards templates available in AtoM, see the following:

• Descriptive standards
• Change the display standard
• Data entry / templates
• Default templates

To add an alternative identifer to your archival description:

1. First, navigate to the archival description you wish to edit. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Switch from view mode to edit mode by clicking “Edit” button in the button block, or by clicking on one of the information area headings; this takes you to the record’s edit page.

3. On loading, the edit page displays the record with all information areas closed; click on the Administration area heading to expand it and make changes.

4. You will a link to reveal the Alternative identifiers field below the Identifier field, whose location depends on which display standard you are using (ISAD, RAD, or DACS). In general, it will be found in the first information area of the description template.

In this example, the link to reveal the Alternative identifier fields is found under the Identifier fields in the Identity information area of the ISAD(G) template.

5. Click on the link to reveal the Alternative identifier fields below. Users can add a custom label (to describe the purpose or origin of the alternative identifier), and a value.

6. You can add multiple alternative identifiers at the same time, and you can return in edit mode at any point in the future to edit, remove, or add new identifiers. To add another row, click the “Add new” link beneath the fields. To remove an alternative identifier, click the X to the right of the field row.

7. When you are done adding, editing, or removing your alternative identifiers, click “Save” in the button block located at the bottom of the edit page. If you click “Cancel” or navigate away from the page without clicking “Save,” you changes will not be saved.

8. AtoM will redirect you to the view page for your archival description. The alternative identifiers will be displayed with their custom labels in the Notes area of your descriptive template.

Back to top

Move an archival description¶

Occasionally a user will need to move an archival description from one level of description to another, from one fonds or collection (or other top-level description) to another, or simply to change the sort order within a number of records that share the same level of description (sometimes called siblings). There are two methods of moving archival descriptions - the first method allows only for changing the sort order in the treeview found in the context menu, while the second method, more robust, allows for a record to be moved broadly throughout the application, even allowing a lower level of description to be moved so that it becomes a new parent description.

Method 2: Move a description to a different level¶

An authenticated (i.e. logged in) user with the proper permissions (see: User roles and Edit permissions) can also move a description from one level to another, or even from one fonds or collection (or other top-level description), by using the “Move” button located in the button block of an archival description’s view page. A lower level of description can also be moved so that it becomes a new parent description.

Important

Moving any description using this method also moves all child-level descriptions of the description being moved. For example, if you move a series that has file-level descriptions attached, all the file-level descriptions will be moved along with the series.

If you wanted to move a description without moving all of its children, you could 1) Create a duplicate of the description 2) Move the duplicate record to its new position, and then 3) Edit the original description (with the children). See above, Duplicate an existing archival description.

To move an archival description:

1. Navigate to the child description that you wish to move. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. At the bottom of the description’s view page, press the “Move” button, located in the button block.

3. You will be redirected to the Move page, which lists all top-level (i.e. parent) descriptions, and provides a search bar.
4. To find your move location more quickly ou can use the Move search bar to bring up results in the Move browse results listed below. For example, if you don’t know the name of a series record but you do know the name of the fonds or collection, you could search for the top-level description and then use the Move browser (below) to navigate to the correct level of description.

5. The blue hyperlinks allow Users to drill down into the hierarchy of the archival description selected. Clicking on a top-level description in the Move page will display the description’s lower levels of description - for example, clicking on a fonds would reveal the series or sous- fonds below it, and clicking on the series would then reveal the files below it. To orient yourself, a breadcrumb trail will appear above the list of potential archival descriptions, indicating where in the archival unit’s you are currently located - this is intented to help Users understand if they are moving the record to a sous-fonds, series, sub-series, or a file.

6. If there are no more lower-level descriptions beneath the current level you are exploring in the move browser, then the move browser will be empty, as you can no longer drill down any lower in the hierarchy.

7. When you have reached the right level where you want to move the record, the new parent description should be the last breadcrumb in the breadcrumb trail, while the new siblings will be listed as hyperlinks below. Click “Move here” in the button block to move the record.

8. To make a child-level description a top-level description (e.g. to turn a series into a fonds), click “Move here” without selecting one of the blue links.
9. You will be redirected to the moved record’s view page. If you look at the treeview located in the context menu on the left- hand side of the description’s view page, you will see that your description has been moved to a new location.

Back to top

Delete an archival description¶

An authenticated (i.e. logged in) user with the proper permissions (see: User roles and Edit permissions) can delete an archival description at any time, by navigating to the description and using the Delete button located in the button block.

To delete an archival description:

1. Navigate to the archival description that you would like to permanently delete. You can do this by browsing or searching for the archival description - see Access content for more information on navigation in AtoM.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the description’s view page, and click the Delete button located in the button block.

3. AtoM will provide a warning and prompts you to confirm that you really wish to delete the description. If child descriptions will be deleted as well,the warning will list them. If you are sure you want to delete the record and all of its descendants/children, click “Delete”.

4. AtoM deletes the record and returns you to the parent record of the deleted description or to the browse page if the deleted record was a top- level description.

Back to top