A field for biographical information about authors/creators

[wsaar...@gmail.com]

I am not a IT person or developer but rather a library and archives cataloger by profession who uses AtoM for a non-profit organization's archives.. When I first started using AtoM back in 2012, I remember reading in the documentation something about a field for biographical information.  I have never had the opportunity to explore this or learn how to use it. I am now ready to start creating biographical sketches for some of the more prominent authors/creators mentioned in the records I have created for our institution. I have been collecting information on these people for this purpose. I thought biographical information was a function of the Name authority field. I need to add to the names authority file vital information like birth, marriage, death, family history, children, education, employment, affiliations, etc. In other words a biographical sketches that users of the database can go to learn more about the authors. Where can I put this information? Thank you for your help and suggestions.

Daniela Moneta, MLIS

[Dan Gillean]

Hi Daniela, 

You can add biographical or administrative history information directly to the authority record, and then link it to an archival description as either a creator, a name access point, or (depending on the standards template you are using) some other kind of relation such as contributor, collector, broadcaster, etc. 

When you add a creator name or a name access point to an archival description, AtoM will automatically create a new stub authority record if you are not linking to an existing one. Once your description is saved, you can click on the hyperlinked name in the description's view page to go to the authority record. Alternatively, you can navigate to Browse > Authority record and search or browse for your authority record there. 

 If you enter edit mode on the authority record, you will see a History field. Once you have added data here, the history will automatically display on the related archival description at the level where it is linked. 

You can read more about this in our documentation here: 

• https://www.accesstomemory.org/docs/latest/user-manual/add-edit-content/authority-records/#atom-authority-records-biographical-histories-and-access-points 

Cheers,  

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

@accesstomemory

he / him

On Sat, Jan 11, 2020 at 10:42 AM <wsaar...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am not a IT person or developer but rather a library and archives cataloger by profession who uses AtoM for a non-profit organization's archives.. When I first started using AtoM back in 2012, I remember reading in the documentation something about a field for biographical information.  I have never had the opportunity to explore this or learn how to use it. I am now ready to start creating biographical sketches for some of the more prominent authors/creators mentioned in the records I have created for our institution. I have been collecting information on these people for this purpose. I thought biographical information was a function of the Name authority field. I need to add to the names authority file vital information like birth, marriage, death, family history, children, education, employment, affiliations, etc. In other words a biographical sketches that users of the database can go to learn more about the authors. Where can I put this information? Thank you for your help and suggestions.

Daniela Moneta, MLIS

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