Control area

Data entry: control area

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Control area (example shows an archival description)

The Control area is the same for archival descriptions, authority records, and archival institutions. It contains fields that uniquely identify the description itself and records how, when and by which archival institution the description was created and maintained.

The following notes aim primarily to clarify ICA-AtoM procedures; for guidelines on what information to record in particular fields, consult ISAD(G), ISAAR(CPF) or ISDIAH as the content standard. The notes are organized by field, with links to the applicable section(s) of the standards. Where there is a one-to-one correspondence between an element of description in the standard and an ICA-AtoM field, the note simply gives the standard rule verbatim. For purposes of quotation, the most recently approved standard -- ISDIAH -- has been cited.

1. Description identifier

• "Record a unique description identifier in accordance with local and/or national conventions. If the description is to be used internationally, record the code of the country in which the description was created in accordance with the latest version of ISO 3166 Codes for the representation of names of countries. Where the creator of the description is an international organisation, give the organisational identifier in place of the country code." (ISDIAH 5.6.1)

2. Institution identifier

• "Record the full authorised form of name(s) of the agency(ies) responsible for creating, modifying or disseminating the description or, alternatively, record a code for the agency in accordance with the national or international agency code standard." (ISDIAH 5.6.2)

3. Rules or conventions

• "Record the names, and where useful the editions or publication dates, of the conventions or rules applied. Specify separately which rules have been applied for creating the Authorised form of name. Include reference to any system(s) of dating used to identify dates in this description (e.g. ISO 8601)." (ISDIAH 5.6.3)

4. Status

• "Record the current status of the description, indicating whether it is a draft, finalized and/or revised or deleted." (ISDIAH 5.6.4)

• ICA-AtoM ships with a drop-down menu using the Description statuses (taxonomy); administrators and editors can customize the taxonomy to the institution's own standards.

5. Level of detail

• "Record whether the description consists of a minimal, partial or full level of detail in accordance with relevant international and/or national guidelines and/or rules. In the absence of national guidelines or rules, minimal descriptions are those that consist only of the three essential elements of an ISDIAH compliant description (see 4.7), while full descriptions are those that convey information for all relevant ISDIAH elements of description." (ISDIAH 5.6.5)

• ICA-AtoM ships with a drop-down menu using the Description detail levels (taxonomy); administrators and editors can customize the taxonomy to the institution's own standards.

6. Dates of creation, revision and deletion

• "Record the date the description was created and the dates of any revisions to the description. Specify in the Rules and/or conventions element (5.6.3) the system(s) of dating used, e.g. ISO 8601." (ISDIAH 5.6.6)

7. Language

• "Record the language(s) and/or script(s) of the description. Include the appropriate ISO codes for languages (ISO 639-2 Codes for the representation of names of languages) and/or scripts (ISO 15924 Codes for the representation of names of scripts)." (ISDIAH 5.6.7

• ICA-AtoM implements this element as a mulit-value field.

• Select language in which the description exists from the drop-down list; when you save the record, ICA-AtoM registers the language and displays it in the list above the data entry field.

• There is no limit to the number of languages that can be added, but as of the current version of ICA-AtoM (v1.0 beta) you can only register them one at a time, i.e. select the language, click the Save button, repeat for each additional language.

• Whenever you add a new translation of a description, the new language must be added to the list; select the language and save.

• To delete a language from the list, cick the Delete icon next to it in the list.

8. Script (ISAAR(CPF) 5.4.7, ISDIAH 5.6.7, ISDF 5.4.7):

• Select script in which the description exists from the drop-down list.
• When you save the record, ICA-AtoM registers the script and displays it in the list above the data entry field.
• When you translate a description into a language in a different script, the new script must be added to the list; select the script and save.
• To delete an entry from the list, cick the Delete icon.

9. Sources (ISAAR(CPF) 5.4.8, ISDIAH 5.6.8, ISDF 5.4.8):

• List the sources consulted in preparing the description.
• This is a text field, ICA-AtoM does not structure the data in any predetermined way.