Attachments

In EMu the information about your collection is stored in various modules, each specific to the type of information recorded. For example, the Catalogue module records details about the items in your collection; the Parties module stores information about people and organisations involved with your collection in any way.

Where records in different modules relate to each other, they are linked together through a process called Attachment (definitions of Attachment terminology are available below). For example:

  • An item recorded in the Catalogue module would attach to:
    • One or more records in the Parties module which specify the item collection manager and/or curator.
    • A record in the Accession Lots module which specifies the acquisition source and method for the item.
  • An Internal Movements record would attach to a record in the Locations module which specifies the details of a given location.
  • A Loans record would attach to a record in the Catalogue module for the object on loan and to a record in the Parties module which specifies the party to whom the object is on loan.

An attachment field is a field in a module that can link to a related record in the same or another module. It can be identified by the Attachment Attach and View Attachment View Attachment buttons beside it, e.g. Associated With in the Parties module:

Attachments

Note: The View Attachment View Attachment button is greyed out until an attachment is made.

As we see in How to make, view and delete attachments there are several methods you can use to attach records.

Your institution is organising a travelling exhibition. The event organiser is a member of staff, Nick Margiolakis. To record this information in EMu you would create two records:

  1. A record for the event in the Events module.
  2. A record for Nick Margiolakis in the Parties module.

You would then Attach (link) the two records to each other.

Thus the three steps are:

  1. Create a record in the Events module recording details about the event, e.g. type of event, dates, venue(s), etc.
  2. Create a record in the Parties module recording details about Nick Margiolakis, e.g. name, address, email address, etc.
  3. In the Events module there is an attachment field called Organisers: (Event Information) and it is here that the Nick Margiolakis record in the Parties module is attachedto the record in the Events module:

Even though the information is stored in two modules, you could now search the Events module using details about Nick Margiolakis and would find out which Event he has organised, or you could search for this event and would also find information about Nick Margiolakis.

Let's say Nick Margiolakis now organises another event. To record this in EMu you would:

  1. Create a new Events record.
  2. Attach Nick Margiolakis' existing Parties record to the new Events record.

Thus, one advantage of the Attachment process is that Nick's details only need to be entered into EMu once and can then be used as many times as necessary.

Information stored in one record can be attached to many other records.

For example, a single insurance policy can provide cover for many items in the Catalogue. The insurance policy is entered into the Insurance module once and then attached to every item in the Catalogue module covered by the policy. If the insurance policy details change, only the insurance record needs to be updated. The Catalogue records automatically display the correct information.

It is possible to search for records using search data in an attached module. For instance you could search the Catalogue module for items created by Graham Duffy.

See How do I search an attachment field? for details.

Term

Definition

Attachment

A link between a record in a module and a record in the same or another module.

For example, the Catalogue module records details about a documentary. The Parties module records details about the creator of the documentary. The Creator Details group of fields in the Catalogue module would be linked to the author's record in the Parties module.

Primary and Target module / record

In this example the Catalogue module is the Primary module. The Parties module is the Target module.

Most modules can be both Primary and Target modules (simultaneously).

For instance, the Bibliography module is the Primary module when it makes a link to the Parties module; it is the Target module when a Catalogue record links to one of its records.

Reverse Attachment

The term Reverse Attachment simply means tracing an attachment back from the Target to the Primary record. From a Primary record it is a simple matter to navigate to a record that it has linked to.

It is also possible to navigate from the Target record back to the record that linked to it.

In the example above an attachment is made from the Catalogue module to the Parties module. The direction of the link is Primary to Target or Catalogue to Parties. The link can be followed back from the Parties module to the Catalogue module, that is the attachment can be navigated in reverse.