Automatically generated names from the Name of creator field

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Anne Scherman

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Apr 12, 2018, 12:31:57 PM4/12/18
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Hi,

Today, we realized that in our archival descriptions the Name of creator field does not automatically generate a Name access point field. This is sad since it badly affects the search results when using the advanced search.

 

An example from Borthwick Catalogue, where the Access points area displays Name access points fields generated from the Name of creator field. (https://borthcat.york.ac.uk/index.php/acomb-hospital-archive)

An example from our Arken Catalogue where there are no Name access points fields generated from the Name of creator field.

(https://arken.kb.se/SE-S-HS-Acc2017-23, please change to English since Swedish is default)

 

The funny thing (or rather not) is that we are quite sure there used to be Name access points fields generated from the Name of creator field in Arken.

 

What to do?

 

Best regards,

Anne Scherman

Dan Gillean

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Apr 12, 2018, 1:20:39 PM4/12/18
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Hi Anne, 

This is a good example of how challenging it is to please everyone. What you've encountered is not a bug. I believe you are running an installation from our most recent work in stable/2.4.x - that is to say, you have an installation that includes all the bug fixes and changes we have already completed that will be included in the 2.4.1 release. This is the result of one of the changes we've introduced based on feedback in the upcoming 2.4.1 release. Allow me to explain. 

In prior releases (from ICA-AtoM's early days up until 2.4.0) AtoM was behaving as you describe - any time a creator name was added, AtoM would also automatically add a corresponding name (subject) access point. 

Most users didn't notice this, because it wasn't displaying on the related authority record - until changes made in version 2.4.0, with this ticket where we enhanced the way related resources are displayed on the authority record: 
While previously these links were technically there but obfuscated from the user, now suddenly they were being displayed in the user interface on authority records. Consequently, we ended getting a lot of surprised reactions and negative feedback about this from our users and clients. Several of our users got in touch wanting to file a bug report, believing this was an upgrade bug (rather than a change that revealed something that AtoM had always done, but most people hadn't realized).

In discussing the matter with these users, they made very valid arguments (in our estimation) about how potentially inaccurate this automatic designation might be for some records. The truth is, there are many cases where the creator of the records is not the subject of the records at all, and if we automate the process, then users have no means of removing this link if it inaccurate. By automating it, it also obfuscates the cases where user do want to intentionally tag someone as a name access point. Finally, since the authority record is already linked as a creator, it is not helping searching/browsing to have every single creator also automatically added as a name access point - in fact, it can make finding materials about (but not by) a particular actor harder to locate! Adding every creator as a name access point was affecting the weighting we added to improve searching in issue #6681, for example. 

Because of this feedback, we've decided to remove this automatic behavior in 2.4.1, via this ticket: 
So, this is not a bug, but a calculated change based on feedback about previously hidden functionality that was preventing some users from following workflows that should be supported in AtoM. 

In your case, and for other users moving forward after 2.4.1, this will mean a bit more descriptive work  - if you want to indicate that a creator is also the subject of the records, then you will have to manually add them as a name (subject) access point. I apologize for the confusion that this change has caused. 

Regards, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory

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Anne Scherman

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Apr 13, 2018, 11:22:19 AM4/13/18
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Hi Dan,

 

Thanks for your answer, fast and informative as always!

 

If we understand you correctly, the only way to get search hits from the Name of creator field,  using Advanced search options, is to choose Any field in from the top drop list.

 

By the way, we notice that that very same drop list doesn´t give Name of creator as an alternative. Is that an opition you are planning to add?

 

Conlusion. We should now manually add the Creator names  to the Name access points field in the archival descriptions. Is that correct?

 

And, we have probably missed it, but is there an info letter on coming updates? We would like to sign up.

 

Kind regards,

Anne



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Dan Gillean

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Apr 13, 2018, 12:24:07 PM4/13/18
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Hi Anne, 

That's a very good point! I hadn't realized that Creator was missing as a search option in that list. It should be possible to add it without too much difficulty - I've filed a feature request ticket in the AtoM Wishlist project so we can track this request. 
If your institution is interested in sponsoring this enhancement to guarantee its inclusion in our next major release (2.5), feel free to follow up with me off-list. Otherwise, I'm adding it to our internal list of bugs and minor features to review and try to address for the next release, but I can't promise it will make the cut. 


In the meantime, you can conduct searches for creator names by directly targeting the relevant Elasticsearch field. See: 
  • creators.i18n.%LANG%.authorizedFormOfName
Where %LANG% is a placeholder for the 2-letter ISO 639-1 language code of the culture you wish to target for the search. So, for example - to search in an English interface for a creator with the last name of "Smith", you could enter the following search: 
  • creators.i18n.en.authorizedFormOfName:Smith
If your target search string has spaces in it, then you should put the search term in quotations. For example, to search for "Doe, Jane" in a Swedish interface, you could enter the following: 
  • creators.i18n.sv.authorizedFormOfName:"Doe, Jane"
There is of course also the Creators facet available on the search/browse page (which will allow you to limit your results to those descriptions linked to the most used 10 authority records), and the dedicated authority record search box on the Authority record search/browse page. And, as you mentioned, a global search (e.g. leaving this set as "Any field") does include the creator name, so you can perform a general search without specifying fields/parameters and get matching results returned. Not ideal, but at least you have some options!

Regarding upcoming developments: 

We don't have a newsletter or anything unfortunately. The best way to keep track of what's coming is to take a look at the Roadmap on our wiki - I try to add all relevant tickets and feature summaries as they are confirmed. You'll find, for example, a full list of the bug fixes confirmed for 2.4.1, and the features we've already started adding to our upcoming 2.5 release. See: 
You can also explore the relevant development tickets in our issue tracking system in greater detail. Here they are, organized by category, for the 2 upcoming releases: 
Cheers, 


Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory

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Dan Gillean

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May 24, 2018, 1:30:30 PM5/24/18
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Hi Anne, 

A quick update to say that a developer had some time between client projects and is working on the search by creator wish-list ticket now. Consequently, I've moved it from the Wishlist to the main AtoM project, and tagged it for inclusion in the 2.5 release! See: 
Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory

Anne Scherman

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May 25, 2018, 12:14:43 PM5/25/18
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Hi Dan, I've said it before and I'll say it again: You're amazing!
Thanks!
//Anne


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