Slides presented at Archeion workshops in March 2012.

1. Archeion Workshop
Amanda Hill
Archeion Coordinator

2. ARCHEION

3. 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

4. Old ARCHEION combined creator
information with fonds description
Information
about
Archival creator(s)
description
Information
about
records

5. Institutional information held
elsewhere
Information
about
creator(s)
Archival institutions
Information
about
records Held on AAO site
Held in ARCHEION

6. New Archeion’s structure
Archival institutions
Online display
Archival descriptions Record creators

9. Standards-based records
• ISDIAH – International
Standard for Describing Archival institutions
Institutions with Archival
Holdings
• RAD – Rules for Archival Archival descriptions
Description
• ISAAR-CPF – International
Standard for Archival
Authority Records - Record creators
Corporate, Personal, Family

10. Easy to update
All these Archival institutions
records can
Archival descriptions
be edited by
Archeion
Record creators
contributors

12. CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS:
INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION

13. 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…

14. Form-based data entry

15. Click on headings to open section

16. CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS:
AUTHORITY RECORDS

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

22. Creating new authority files
• Log in to Archeion

23. Authority record editing screen

24. 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

25. 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

26. Relationships
• Separate authority files can be linked to more
than one archival description, saving
duplication of information
Record creator
Archival Archival
description description

27. Relationships between creators
• Links can also be made between authority files
Person
Organization
Member of
Predecessor of
Family
Organization

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. CREATING ARCHEION RECORDS:
ARCHIVAL DESCRIPTIONS

32. 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

33. Mandatory fields
• Title proper • Physical description
• Level of description • Scope and content
• Repository • Language (of materials)
• Name of creator • Restrictions on access
• Date • Finding aids

34. Creation fields

35. Creation fields

36. Dates of creation area

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. Remember
In your first sentence… world-wide
context…
• 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.

42. 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

44. Adding lower levels of description

45. Display of lower levels

46. Information needed at lower levels
• Some details are inherited from the fonds
or collection description
• You don’t need to add: • You do need:
– Repository – Title
– Creator (unless different – Dates of creation
from top level) – Physical description
– Custodial history – Scope and content
– Finding aids
– (anything which is the same
for the whole fonds)

47. 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)

48. Adding digital objects

50. Adding digital objects

52. 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

53. DEMO

54. Coordinator contact details
• Amanda Hill
• archeion@aao-archivists.ca
• 416-929-4447

55. Help build our community resource!