VHH-MMSI Manual: Creating New Agents

  • Version: 1.2
  • Date: 2022-07-17
  • Author(s): LBI (Sema Colpan)
  • Reviewer(s): LBI (Ingo Zechner)

1.1. Introduction

This Manual is intended for manually creating new Agents that are not yet available in the VHH-MMSI.

Definition and objective

An “Agent” can be eighter a Person, an Organization or a Group that may be identified by a name and an identifier. Groups are supposed to be used for collectives that are less formally defined and institutionalized than an Organization (e.g., an artist group or a family).

1.2. Steps

Login

  • Login by using your VHH-MMSI access credentials.

Search Agents

  • Main Menu: Select “Agents”.
  • Search bar: Type in name of relevant Agent and check if Agent is indeed not yet available in the VHH-MMSI before creating a new entry. (Note: Search may be performed across all attributes (= “All tata fields”) within “Agents” or may be restricted to specific attributes (e.g., “Name”, “External identifier”).)
  • Filters: Filters may be set to reduce numbers of search results. (Note: Person Type filters do not include Relations. Searching for “Samuel Fuller” and setting the Person Type filter to “director” will only deliver a search result if Samuel Fuller’s “Type of Activity” has been defined as “director”. There will be no search result if only the Relation between Samuel Fuller and a certain film such as “The Big Red One” has been defined as “director”.)
  • Search bar: Repeat search for different spellings or alias names if there is no result.
  • Enter “AND” between search terms if both terms need to apply. (Note: “Alain AND Resnais” will deliver search results for Persons to whom both names apply. “Alain Resnais” implicitly has the form “Alain OR Resnais” and will deliver search results for Persons to whom either the name “Alain” or the name “Resnais” applies.)
  • Use an asterisk (*) if you are not sure about the exact spelling (e.g., “Alain AND Re*” for “Alain Resnais”).

Create new Agent

Create Agent: Click on “+Create Agent” and select “Person, Organization or Group” from drop-down list.

Creating a Person

  • Preferred Label: Add the display name of the Person (= the name displayed in Search Result lists, etc.).
  • Fill in all parts of the name you want to be displayed. As a minimum requirement, a forename and the surname must be indicated. These names can differ from other names used by the same Person. Typically, the most widely used name(s) of the Person (and their most common spelling) should also be used as Preferred Label.
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save. You will see your entry including the IDNO and the Preferred Label.
Editing Basic Data:

Click on “Edit” and stay in “Basic Data” to add more information on the Person (such as different names the Person may have had or used: name in other languages, name types such as married names, alias names, spelling variants of names), to link external identifiers or to enter dates, descriptions, etc.

As a minimum, you need to fill in information on

  • External Identifier
  • Date of birth and (if applicable) Date of death
  • Gender
  • Type of Activity

 

External Identifier: It is mandatory to specify a link to the corresponding Wikidata entry. If there is no Wikidata entry yet, you must create a new Wikidata item first.[1] Additionally, it is highly recommended to indicate other identifiers such as the GND identifier[2] or the VIAF identifier[3].

  • Click on “+Add Eternal Identifier”.
  • Scheme: Fill in the name of the Identifier referred to such as Wikidata or GND.
  • Value: Indicate the value of the unique identifier. In case of Wikidata, this identifier always looks like Q#####.
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”[4]). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”[5]).
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.
  • Date of birth and (if applicable) Date of death
  • Click on “+Add Date”.
  • Date: Fill in the date of birth.
  • Type: From the dropdown menu select “date of birth”.
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] Filename; Sheet name; Column title”). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”).
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.

 

  • Click on “+Add Date” again.
  • Date: Fill in the date of death.
  • Type: From the dropdown menu select “date of death”.
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”).
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.
  • Gender
  • Click on “+Add Gender”.
  • Gender: Select corresponding gender.
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”).
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.
  • Type of Activity
  • Click on “+Add Type of Activity”.
  • Activity: Select the related main activity from the controlled vocabulary in the drop-down list. (Note: you can search the drop-down list by entering a vocabulary search term.)
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”).
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.

 

  • Credit: If the activity was/is in the field of film production, click on “+Add Type of Activity”.
  • Select from the drop-down list in “Credit” field.
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”). If you are the source yourself, add your name as the source and­—in square brackets—your name as annotator and the date of the annotation (format: “Forename Surname [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD]”)
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save annotation.

 

  • Freetext (Source): Attention! “Freetext” is a technical term as opposed to “Vocabulary” and may be misleading as a field name: Use this field only to additionally note exact references (quotes) from third party sources. That’s why the field is called “Freetext (Source)”. E.g., in the opening credits of a German film, the director of the film may be referred to as “Filmleiter”. In addition to annotating the Person as director, one might annotate “Filmleiter” in the Freetext (Source) field.

 

  • Click on “+Add Type of Activity”.
  • Fill in the exact quote from the source (including the exact spelling).
  • Value Source: Add the corresponding source as reference (format: “Source Title [Forename Surname: YYYY-MM-DD] File name; Sheet name; Column title”).

Creating an Organization

Preferred Label: Add the display name of the Organization (= the name displayed in Search Result lists, etc.).

  • Fill in the version of the name that you want to be displayed. This name can differ from other names used by the same Organization (at the same time or at different times). Typically, the most widely used name of the Organization (and its most common spelling) should also be used as Preferred Label.
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save. You will see your entry including the IDNO and the Preferred Label.
Editing Basic Data:

Click on “Edit” and stay in “Basic Data” to add more information on the Organization (such as different names the Organization may have had or by which it is/was known: name in other languages, alias names, spelling variants of names), to link external identifiers or to enter dates, descriptions, etc.

As a minimum, you need to fill in information on

  • External Identifier (see Person)
  • Type of Activity (see Person)

Creating a Group

Preferred Label: Add the display name of the group (= the name displayed in Search Result lists, etc.).

  • Fill in the version of the name that you want to be displayed. This name can differ from other names used by the same Group (at the same time or at different times). Typically, the most widely used name of the Group (and its most common spelling) should also be used as Preferred Label.
  • Create: Click on “Create” to save. You will see your entry including the IDNO and the Preferred label.
Editing Basic Data:

Click on “Edit” and stay in “Basic Data” to add more information on the Group (such as different names the Group may have had or by which it is/was known: name in other languages, alias names, spelling variants of names), to link external identifiers or to enter dates, descriptions, etc.

As a minimum, you need to fill in information on

  • External Identifier (see Person)
  • Type of Activity (see Person)

[1] For a quick guide on how to create a new entry on Wikidata, cf. VHH-MMSI Manual: Creating New Wikidata Items.

[2] Gemeinsame Normdatei (GND): https://lobid.org/gnd/search

[3] Virtual International Authority File (VIAF): https://viaf.org/

[4] E.g., “VHH CoVoc Names [Alexander Prenninger: 2022-07-17] VHH_Vocabularies_ Live-Document.xlsx; Sheet:VHH_Names_Person;Column:VHH_Name_eng”.

[5] E.g., “Alexander Prenninger [Alexander Prenninger: 2022-07-17]”.