Subject headings are used in ArchivesSpace to link descriptive metadata records to terms bearing a topical, geographic, form, or other relationship to the items described by those records. Subject headings are managed separately from Agents, that is, named entities such as people or organizations. Common subject headings include the topic or subject of the item, its form or genre (e.g. “photograph,” “map”), or the location of a photograph or geographic coverage of an audiovisual item.
Required fields will appear in bold.
| Basic Information: Authority ID | |
| Description | The Uniform Resource Identifier uniquely identifying the subject heading described. |
| Local Rules | Required if establishing against an existing authority file; if the source is local, the Authority ID is not required. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | subject.authority_id |
| Basic Information: Source | |
| Description | The origin of the provided description for the subject heading. |
| Local Rules | Select from the drop-down list. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | subject.source |
| Basic Information: Scope Note | |
| Description | The range of materials which are to be covered by the subject heading, or the definition of the heading. |
| Local Rules | Drawn from existing authority files or provided locally by a Metadata Technician. The Scope Note may be used to provide alternative forms of a given heading, in order to allow those forms to be indexed and used in search results. For example, in the heading for Shehitah, we provide the following scope note: "Use for: Schachet, Shechita, Shechitah, Shehita, Shochet, Shohet, Slaughtering and slaughter-houses–Jews" This allows these terms to be indexed in ArchivesSpace alongside the authorized heading, in spite of the lack of thesaurus functionality in ArchivesSpace. Keyword searches for these alternative transliterations will bring up records to which the 'Shehitah' heading has been linked. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | subject.scope_note |
| Terms and Subdivisions: Term | |
| Description | The label applied to a term used in a subject heading. |
| Local Rules | Terms and Subdivisions constitute the subject heading itself. In most cases only one will be required; however, if creating or working with coordinated subject headings, you may require multiple terms on a single subject heading, as in the case of Ski resorts -- Colorado. When creating subject headings with more than one term or subdivision, the terms will index and display in the order in which they are saved in the ArchivesSpace record. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | term.term |
| Terms and Subdivisions: Type | |
| Description | The specific category of term being applied within a subject heading. |
| Local Rules | Select from the drop-down list. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | term.term_type |
| External Documents: Title | |
| Description | The label applied to a link outside of ArchivesSpace to material providing additional context about the subject heading. |
| Local Rules | External Documents are used in ArchivesSpace to provide links to outside resource which may be helpful to a user in learning more about that resource. For subject headings, they may assist an archivist in determining whether to apply a particular subject heading to an archival resource or aggregate record. |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | external_document.title |
| External Documents: Location | |
| Description | The place where an external document may be found. Generally this is a URL for a website. |
| Local Rules | |
| Examples | |
| ArchivesSpace Key | external_document.location |
When two headings in ArchivesSpace are found to represent the same concept, it may be necessary to de-duplicate them. This may be done in one of two ways. If the heading contains no linked records, you may delete it. You can determine whether a heading is linked to any records in the database by viewing it; there will be a section of the record entitled “Linked Records” showing the records to which your heading is linked.
To delete the record, click on the red “Delete” button at the upper right of the pane. Note: You cannot un-delete a record once it has been deleted. If a record was deleted in error, alert the Archives Processing Librarian; they may be able to restore the record from backup.
If a heading contains links to other records, you should instead merge it into another record. To do this, navigate to the record for the heading you wish to keep, and click on the “Merge” dropdown, also at the upper right of the pane. A window will appear asking you to input the records you would like to merge into the current record.
You may enter the subject you wish to merge in one of two ways. You can do a search for it in the text box, as you would if you were attaching it to a record; or you may browse for it by clicking on the drop-down button, then selecting “Browse.” Once you have selected the heading you wish to merge, click on the “Merge” button.
In the background, this will detach any linked records from the heading you are merging, re-attach them to the heading into which it is being merged, then delete the original heading.