Collection Descriptions module

The Collection Descriptions module holds high level descriptive details about collections. A collection is very broadly any group of related or grouped items. The relationship may be items collected on an expedition; paintings from a particular period or by a specific artist, and so on.

As with information held in the Narratives module, collection level information is particularly useful for use on the web, and the Collection Descriptions module has been designed to facilitate web access. One opportunity presented by this module is cross-institutional searching of collection level details. Institutions which choose to participate can allow their Collection Descriptions module records to be harvested and made available for searching via their own website and that of any other participating institution.

Collection level details are recorded across nine tabs:

Description

The Description tab holds a title for the collection, an abstract, detailed description, and dates covered by the collection.

Fields	Description
Title	The collection title, e.g. `Jenny Kee Collection`.
Brief Description	A brief summary or abstract describing the collection. The Brief Description is of particular use when presenting the collection on a website: when a search is performed, this abstract can be presented to the searcher as part of the search results.
Full	A detailed description of the collection.
Date Range	The period covered by the collection. For example, the start and end dates of an expedition on which a group of items was collected; the period in which a group of paintings was painted, etc. The three date fields operate in the same way as any other date range fields in EMu: enter a date, date range or circa date in the Date Range field and the Earliest and Latest fields are updated automatically (and can be edited as required).

Significance

The Significance tab holds a general statement about the importance of the collection, details about any rights that apply to the collection, and any notes / comments specifically about the collection that do not fit anywhere else in the module.

Fields	Description
Significance	A statement about the collection's significance / importance.
Rights Statement	A statement concerning any rights that apply to the collection, e.g. `Some material is subject to copyright`.
Rights	A link to a record in the Rights module with details about the rights pertaining to this collection.
Access Rights Statement	A statement about access rights to the collection, e.g. `By appointment`.
Collection Notes	Similar to the Notes tab, but intended to hold any notes / comments specifically about the collection that do not fit elsewhere in the module.

External

The External tab holds details about any reference to the collection that is not recorded in EMu, i.e. there is no Parties or Thesaurus record describing the reference that can be linked to.

See Parties and Thesaurus tabs for details about internal references to the collection.

Amongst other things, an external reference to the collection might be:

A person / organisation / group considered to be an authority / expert on the collection.
A source of information of some description about the collection, such as a website.
A place of significance to the collection.

Fields	Description
Type	The type of external reference. Lookup List. Types are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be: `Person` `Cultural Group` `Organisation` `Subject` `Place` `Book` `Article`
Source	The source of the external reference. A source could be a database (such as Getty), a website, a book, etc., in fact any medium which references / describes the collection. Lookup List. Sources are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be: `People Australia` `Local` `APT` `ScOT` `Geoscience Australia` `Getty`
Name	A keyword descriptor of the external reference (the name of a person / organisation / group, book, website, etc.).
External ID	If the Source is an external database for instance, such as `Getty`, this is the external source's reference (code / identifier) for Name.
URL	A web address to the external reference, perhaps pointing to Name in the Source.

Parties

The Parties tab holds details of any people or organisations recorded in the EMu Parties module recognised as an authority / expert on the collection.

Fields	Description
Type	The type of Parties reference. Lookup List. Types are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be: `Person` `Organisation` `Cultural Group`
value	Link to a record in the EMu Parties module for a person or organisation recognised as an authority on the collection.

Fields

Description

Type

The type of Parties reference.

Lookup List. Types are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be:

Person
Organisation
Cultural Group

value

Link to a record in the EMu Parties module for a person or organisation recognised as an authority on the collection.

Thesaurus

The Thesaurus tab holds any reference to the collection recorded in EMu's Thesaurus module.

Fields	Description
Type	The type of Thesaurus reference. Lookup List. Types are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be: `Object Name` `Subject` `Location`
value	Link to a record in the EMu Thesaurus module with some relevance to the collection.

Fields

Description

Type

The type of Thesaurus reference.

Lookup List. Types are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be:

Object Name
Subject
Location

value

Link to a record in the EMu Thesaurus module with some relevance to the collection.

Authority

The Authority tab holds details about your organisation's:

EMu users with responsibility for maintaining the current record (EMu users who created and / or modified the current record).
Staff with some responsibility for the collection itself.

Group	Fields	Description
Authority	Name	Link to a staff member's EMu record.
	Role	Lookup List. Roles are defined by an institution to suit its needs and could be: `Author` `Editor` `Curator` `Researcher`
	Date	The date that the record was created or modified.
Project		Lookup List of projects related to the collection.

Sub Collection

The Sub Collection, Hierarchy and Associations tabs describe relationships between collections in your institution.

The Sub Collection and Hierarchy tabs work together to describe a hierarchy of collections. As the name suggests, the Sub Collection tab lists any other CDM record that is a sub collection (child) of the current collection (parent).

This screenshot shows two sub collections of the Jenny Kee Collection:

Sub Collection

On the Hierarchy tab, the hierarchy of collections is displayed as a tree with the parent collection at the top:

Hierarchy

The hierarchy can have many levels: a sub collection can have sub collections and so on.

Changing the order of sub collections in the hierarchy is managed on the Sub Collection tab. Either:

Right-click a row and select Move Up or Move Down from the context menu that displays:
-OR-
Click a row number:
and drag the row to the desired position:
The tree is updated on the Hierarchy tab:

Note: If the hierarchy does not refresh immediately, select Hierarchy>Refresh from the Menu bar.

To remove a sub collection from the Sub Collections table:

Right-click the row.
Select Delete from the context menu that displays.

Fields	Description
Sub Collections	Attachment field to another CDM record that is a sub collection (child) of the current collection.
Description	Description of the sub collection.
Master Collections	When a collection is made a sub collection, its parent / master is automatically listed here:

Fields

Description

Sub Collections

Attachment field to another CDM record that is a sub collection (child) of the current collection.

Description

Description of the sub collection.

Master Collections

When a collection is made a sub collection, its parent / master is automatically listed here:

Sub Collection

Hierarchy

The Sub Collection, Hierarchy and Associations tabs describe relationships between collections in your institution.

The Sub Collection and Hierarchy tabs work together to describe a hierarchy of collections - see Sub Collection for details.

The CDM includes a Hierarchy menu which can be used to update the Hierarchy:

Note: Right-clicking an item in the Hierarchy will display a context menu with the same options as the Hierarchy menu.

Hierarchy menu options are:

Option	Description
`View Selected Records`	View full details of selected records in another instance of the Collection Descriptions module. First select one or more items in the hierarchy (`CTRL+Click` to select more than one item) and then select this menu option. `View Selected Records` has the same functionality as the View Attachments button beside the Hierarchy field.
`Add to Records in Result`	Having run a search or returned a group of records, select one or more records in the hierarchy and add it / them to the current list / group of records.
`Replace Current Record`	Select a record in the hierarchy and make it the current record.
`Refresh`	Refresh the hierarchy after changes have been made to its structure. See Sub Collection for more detail.

Hierarchy fields are:

Fields	Description
Hierarchy	The hierarchy of collections. Collections are added to the hierarchy on the Sub Collection tab.

Associations

The Sub Collection, Hierarchy and Associations tabs describe relationships between collections in your institution.

The Associations tab holds details about collections that are associated with the current collection but which do not form part of its hierarchy.

Fields	Description
Associated With	Link to an associated Collection Descriptions record.
Comment	A comment about the nature of the association.
Associates	If one or more Collection Descriptions records link to the current record on the Associations tab, those records will be listed here.

Links to other modules

A Collections Descriptions record can link to other Collections Descriptions records that:

Form a hierarchy of collections (on the Sub Collection and Hierarchy tabs).
Identify other associations between collections (on the Associations tab).

Records in other modules can link to records in the Collection Descriptions module:

Catalogue module - for example, using the Related Collection Descriptions field on the Collections tab.
Narratives module - for example, using the Collection Descriptions: (Related Collection Descriptions) field on the Collections tab.

The following standard EMu tabs are also included in the Collection Descriptions module

Tab	Details
Tasks	See Tasks tab for details.
Notes	See Notes tab for details.
Multimedia	See Multimedia tab for details.
Security	See Security tab for details.
Audit	See Audit tab for details.
Admin	See Admin tab for details.

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