Authority records

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AUTHORITY RECORDS

Brocade is a system of relational databases. Different groups of similar information such as information about authors, corporate authors, geographical names, printers, and so on are saved in separate files. This has the advantage that information should, in general, only be entered once and can from then on be recalled, consulted and completed.

These files are authority files. This means that the information in these records may only be altered by someone who is authorised to do so. This increases the coherence and consistency of the files. There are no limits, however, on consulting the files. The authority files make it easier to manage recurring information and to link this information to descriptions.

3.1 Personal Authors

Personal authors are found in the authority file 'Personen' [people], corporate authors in the file 'Corporatieve auteurs' [corporate authors]. The process described here is similar to that of geographical names and printers.

Personal authors are systematically saved in the 'Personenthesaurus' [people thesaurus]. Care is taken to bring all possible variant forms of the same personal name under the same main form. The principle is: one person receives one thesaurus record. The main form is the normalised, 'arbitrary' name by which the author is best known. For classical and medieval authors, we use the main form as it is given in RAK (Regeln für die alphabetische Katalogisierung). The name form in this field is noted as follows:

Last name, particles, First name [extension]

By particles we mean all prefixes added to a name but separated from this by a space or an apostrophe. Only the Irish and Scottish particals O'... en Mac.../Mc... are retained with the name. A comma followed by a space is place between elements. The extension is entered in a separate field and appears in the indexes always between square brackets. Some extensions may be entered in a controlled manner, but free entry is also possible. The extension may for example contain indications such as 'jr.' or 'sr.' of classical indications to distinguish homonyms ('rhetor', 'philosophus'). A Roman numeral indicating a generation in a dynasty or family, is not placed in the extension but added in the main form after the first name. The particle 's.' for a saint is never present in the main form but can be added in a separate reference term containing the just the author's first name.

Example: Main form of an author

Brande, vanden, Stijn [jr.]

Hollander, d', Joost

Example: Main form of a printer Bellerus, Petrus I [Widow and heirs]

These records then contain all relevant references by which the author is known, or that appear in consulted works and literature. Both the main form and the reference terms are indexed, meaning the user will effortlessly arrive at the correct record. Someone looking for the term 'Suivius' will be referred to the main form of 'Hazart, Cornelius'. After clicking on the main form, you arrive at the authority record itself, where all the reference terms are presented.

3.1.1 Relations

For each personal author, a minimum of two and usually three types of relation are made:

• the period in which the person lived: an author living and working in the seventeenth century receives the indication '92.17'
• the geographical region(s) in which the person was active
• usually an indication of the profession or capacity in which a person was known is added, for example 'juristen' [lawyers], 'Italiaanse letterkunde' [Italian literature] or 'Christendom: personen' [Christianity: people].

Link to the table in Reference lists.

3.1.2 Scope notes

Personal authors always receive a scope note of the type 'bio'. This note contains, as much as possible, at a minimum the year of birth ('begindatum' [start date]), the year of death ('einddatum' [end date]), the place of birth ('beginplaats' [start place]) and the place of death ('eindplaats' [end place]). If no exact year is known, this is noted as: 'c. 1608'. Years before our calendar are indicated with 'ante Chr.' Indications such as termini post or ante quem or centuries are converted to a circa-indication. Place names are always recorded in Dutch, without additions. Further clarifications could potentially be added in the biographical scope note itself.

The free field in the biographical scope note may be utilised in any way. Entering information is compulsory for religious authors: for these authors the order to which they belonged is always mentioned here. The order-indication is abbreviated according to the list of Herwig Ooms, Repertorium universale siglorum ordinum et institutum religiosorum in ecclesia catholica, Brussels 1959. For saints, their feast day is always mentioned.

The biographical scope notes are always internal: they can not be seen or consulted by the end user.

The field 'Bron' [source] contains the bibliographical references used to find the information for the scope note. Preference is given to the known standard works and works present in the STCV list of references. If the information is derived from an external online database, the link to this may be added here.

3.1.3 References

It is possible for authors to put in a hyperlink to an external database. Important databases are the RKD (for graphic artists), Agrippa (for Flemish authors) and BBKL (for religious authors).

→ RKD: Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (www.rkd.nl)

→ BBKL: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexicon (www.bbkl.de)

CREATING A NEW PERSONAL AUTHORITY RECORD

If you are sure there is no existing authority record available, you may create a new authority record for a personal author.

• Go to http://anet.be/menu/auth, select a new record for 'P - persoonsnaam' and click on 'Start'
• Under 'Lidmaatschappen' [memberships]: check 'STCV'
• Under 'Relaties' [Relations]: add relations when possible
  • Geographical: e.g. 944.92 (France: people)
  • Chronological: e.g. 92.17 (Biography: 1600-1699)
  • Profession: e.g. 27.92 (Christianity: people)
• Main form:
  • create a main form following the rules
  • Add English and French versions when relevant/possible ('Verwoording E' and 'Verwoording F')
• Reference term:
  • create the reference term you need following the transcription rules
  • enter 'STCV' for lidmaatschap [membership]
• Biographical scope note: if you have found information, add it here
  • 'Begindatum' [year of birth] and 'Einddatum' [year of death]
  • 'Beginplaats' [place of birth] and 'Eindplaats' [place of death]
  • 'Bron' [source] when possible e.g. link to CERL Thesaurus
• click on 'registreer' [register]
• check 'Bevries/ontdooi dit record' [freeze/unfreeze this record] and, again, click on 'registreer' [register]

All authority records used by STCV should be frozen at all times!