EAD Editor help
Index terms
PLEASE NOTE: We are moving to a competely new Editor in 2017, so our Editor pages are gradually being re-written. This page now relates to our New Editor.
Name of Creator
The creator(s) is entered as an index term automatically. If you wish to edit it, you will be taken back to the 'name of creator' section and the edits will apply to both this and the index term entry.
Source and Rules
The source (or thesaurus) should be entered into the relevant text box and rules should be selected from the drop down menu.
- If a rule set is selected the source button will not be visible.
- If you wish to add a source rather than a rule set then you must first select 'None' in the rules drop down menu and the source box will reappear.
Additional Elements
- Other information required by the source or rule set you are following can be added using the drop down menu underneath the compulsory boxes on the form.
- Select the kind of data you want to add, such as 'Dates', and then click on the 'Add Selected Field' link. This will add another text box to the form and the data can be entered.
- If you wish to delete any of this additional information you can click on the delete icon next to the text box.
- If there are two of more pieces of additional information added to an access point they can be reordered if necessary by dragging the label to the correct position.
- At any stage the access point can be reset using the 'reset' button. This will delete all of the information in the current text boxes and delete any added fields.
Adding Index Terms to the Record
Once the information is completed the access point needs to be added to the record. If this is not done the details will not be added to your description and will be lost.
- To add the access point click on the 'Add to Record' button. This will put the details of the access point in a grey box underneath the access point heading and the details will be added to your record.
- Unwanted access points can be deleted using the delete icon or edited by clicking on the text.
- Clicking on the text will return the details to the form so they can be edited. If you do this any details already in the form fields will be overwritten so if you have details in the form already which you want to keep they must be added to the record before you try to edit an existing access point.
Controlled lists for source/rules attribute values for index terms
Index terms should always comply with nationally recognised rules or thesauri. This aids interoperability, ensuring that we can make use of index terms on the Hub interface, to enable users to search by subject, name and place.
- The EAD Editor provides drop-down lists of rules and thesauri to assist you with selecting the appropriate option.
Punctuation of Index Terms
In order to ensure that index entries are appropriately displayed on the Archives Hub, punctuation is automatically added to the access points where relevant. It is therefore important that you do not add punctuation at the beginning and end of the text boxes.
- If the data you are entering or the rule set you are following require punctuation in the middle of a field this should be added.
We use specific tags to markup parts of an index entry, such as surname, forename, dates, or parts of a Library of Congress subject heading, and then outside of these tags we add punctuation.
e.g.
<subject source="lcsh">
<emph altrender="a">Cats</emph> --
<emph altrender="y">Great Britain</emph> --
<emph altrender="x">History</emph>
Displays as: Cats -- Great Britain -- History
Supported Index Terms
The following index terms are supported by the form but any others present in descriptions being edited will not be lost:
- Subject
- Personal Name
- Family Name
- Corporate Name
- Place Name
- Book Title
- Genre Form
- Function