Skip to content

Authority records

Andrew Dunning edited this page Sep 28, 2020 · 1 revision

Simple changes in Oxygen: adding links to existing authority records

Titles

To index correctly, the <title> element should have a key attribute in the form work_1234. These key attributes have not yet been added to the Jesus records.

Open a file and check for <title> elements in that are missing @key. (e.g. Jesus College MS. 2)

You can paste this query into the XPath 2.0 box: //msItem/title[not(@key)]

Search https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ to see if an authority record exists for that work. (For MS. 2 this would be https://medieval.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/catalog/work_1677, even though the title doesn’t match. Of course, one needs to be careful that the correct work has been found!)

The final part of the URL is the identifier (work_1677) – add this to the <title> element <title key=”work_1677”>De gestis Britonum</title>

Persons

Personal names can be marked up in the decoration and occasionally the title fields.

Enclose the name with the <persName> element; add the key attribute to refer to the relevant authority record (if it exists) and add the role attribute with relevant value from the LOC relator list (e.g. scr scribe, art artist, fmo former owner). E.g. <persName key=”person_68905751”>Margaret of Anjou</persName>

Places

Most of these were added automatically but see MSS. 65, 66, 93, where the <placeName> element with relevant @key needs to be added.

Improving the content of records

Some records are very skeletal (e.g. Jesus College MS. 4)

These may be expanded by:

  • Adding <title> elements
  • Adding elements using some or all of the following and other elements
<msItem>
<author></author>
<title></title>
<incipit></incipit> 
</msItem>

For further guidance see https://bodleian.github.io/consolidated-tei-schema/msdesc.html#msitem.

Creating new authority records

If an authority record does not exist, it needs to be created.

Do not try to edit the existing authority files, as this will cause conflicts. Instead, create the authority record and email it to Matthew.

Sequences of local identifiers are reserved for each participating institution (e.g. person_7000 to person_7500 for Merton College).

Template authority records are below.

Use these identifiers to create authority records using your institutions reserved IDs for local records (i.e., those that cannot be found in VIAF or TGN)

If an entity has a record in VIAF or TGN, use the identifier from that source. E.g. http://viaf.org/viaf/100910150 becomes person_100910150, http://viaf.org/viaf/132460849 becomes org_132460849, http://vocab.getty.edu/page/tgn/7011197 becomes place_7011197.

For multiple VIAF records, prefer (in the following order) those containing (1) a Library of Congress record; (2) a GND record (3) a BNF record (4) other

Create new authority files within a new xml file in Oxygen:

  • Click File, then New (or CTRL+N).
  • In the dialog box, scroll down, open the folder ‘TEI P5’ and select ‘All’ and click Create.
  • Within the <body> element, delete ‘Some text here’.

Add the following elements within

and incorporate new authority files within them:
  • <listPerson> for authority files for a person.
  • <listPlace> for authority files for a place.
  • <listBibl> for authority files for a work.

If more than one person is generating authority files within an institution, save the master xml file to a shared drive.

N.B. Oxygen will automatically check that the same key number has not been used more than once BUT it will not be able to check that two authority files have not been created for the same person / place / work. Make sure you are not duplicating another person’s work before proceeding.

Nominate a person to send the master file at the end of each week to Matthew Holford (matthew.holford@bodleian.ox.ac.uk) for incorporation into the main files.

Template authority records

General

Skeleton record for a person in VIAF

  <person xml:id="person_100161952">
                    <persName type="display">Chromatius, of Aquileia,  Saint, -407</persName>
                </person>

The VIAF id supplies the digits after person_ in the xml:id.

In general the should contain the Library of Congress form if available (in this case however the LC form has not been used).

There is no need to provide other information; variant names and dates are generated from VIAF at a later stage.

Record for a person not in VIAF

  <person xml:id="">
                    <persName type="display" source="bodl">Trillek, Thomas, 1312?-1372</persName>
                   <persName type="variant">Thomas Trilleck</persName>
                    <persName type="variant">Thomas Tryllek</persName>
                    <birth when="1312" cert="medium"/>
                    <death when="1372"/>
                    <note type="links">
                        <list type="links">
                            <item>
                                <ref target="https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/95196">
                                    <title>Oxford DNB</title>
                                </ref>
                            </item>
                            <item>
                                <ref target="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7794566">
                                    <title>Wikidata</title>
                                </ref>
                            </item>
                        </list>
                    </note>
                </person>

Place in the Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

 <place type="settlement" xml:id="place_7005040">
                    <placeName type="index" source="TGN">Foligno</placeName>
             </place>

The Getty ID supplies the digits after place_.

Record for a work

  <bibl xml:id="work_12345">
           <author key="person_102324857">Fulgentius, Saint, Bishop of Ruspa, 468-533</author>
          <title type="uniform">Fulgentius, Saint, Bishop of Ruspa, 468-533: De fide ad Donatum (ep. 8) (CPL 817) [Latin]</title>
          <textLang mainLang="la">Latin</textLang>
          <bibl type="repertory">CPL 817</bibl>
          <bibl type="edition">CCSL  91A (1968), pp. 257–73</bibl>
 <note type="links">
                        <list type="links">
                            <item>
                                <ref target="http://www.mirabileweb.it/title/de-fide-ad-petrum-fulgentius-ruspensis-episcopus-n-title/155">
                                    <title>Mirabile</title>
                                </ref>
                            </item>
                        </list>
                    </note>

        </bibl>

Authority files in a TEI description

<title key="work_3536">Compendium historiae in genealogia christi</title>
<author key="person_40175167">Peter Comestor</author>