Control area

Main Page > User manual > Add/edit content > Control area

The control area is similar for authority records and organizations. It contains fields that uniquely identify the description itself and records how, when, and by which institution the description was created and maintained.

The following notes aim primarily to clarify DCB procedures; for guidelines on what information to record in particular fields, consult ISAAR or ISDIAH as the content standard. The notes are organized by field, with links to the applicable section(s) of the standards. Where there is a one-to-one correspondence between a data element in the standard and an the DCB field, the note simply gives the standard rule verbatim.

Description identifier


"Record a unique description identifier in accordance with local and/or national conventions. If the description is to be used internationally, record the code of the country in which the description was created in accordance with the latest version of ISO 3166, Codes for the representation of names of countries. Where the creator of the description is an international organisation, give the organisational identifier in place of the country code." ISDIAH 5.6.1, ISAAR 5.4.1.

Institution identifier
"Record the full authorised form of name(s) of the agency(ies) responsible for creating, modifying or disseminating the description or, alternatively, record a code for the agency in accordance with the national or international agency code standard." ISDIAH 5.6.2, ISAAR 5.4.2.

Rules or conventions
"Record the names, and where useful the editions or publication dates, of the conventions or rules applied. Specify separately which rules have been applied for creating the Authorised form of name. Include reference to any system(s) of dating used to identify dates in this description (e.g. ISO 8601)." ISDIAH 5.6.3, ISAAR 5.4.3

Status
"Record the current status of the description, indicating whether it is a draft, finalized and/or revised...." ISDIAH 5.6.4; ISAAR 5.4.4.

the DCB ships with a drop-down menu using values drawn from the description statuses taxonomy; administrators and editors can customize the taxonomy to meet institutional standards.

Level of detail
"Record whether the description consists of a minimal, partial or full level of detail in accordance with relevant international and/or national guidelines and/or rules..." ISDIAH 5.6.5, ISAAR 5.4.5.

the DCB ships with a drop-down menu using values drawn from the description detail levels taxonomy; administrators and editors can customize the taxonomy to meet institutional standards.

Dates of creation, revision and deletion
"Record the date the description was created and the dates of any revisions to the description." ISDIAH 5.6.6, ISAAR 5.4.6.

Language and script
"Record the language(s) and/or script(s) of the description..." ISDIAH 5.6.7, ISAAR 5.4.7.

the DCB implements this data element as two separate multi-value fields, each with drop-down menus. The value lists are based on the ISO standards and cannot be edited.

Click on the desired field and select the language or script from the drop-down menu. To narrow the list of choices, enter the first few letters of the language or script.

There is no limit to the number of languages or scripts you can add.

To record a narrative note relating to either field, use the notes area.

Maintenance notes
"Record notes pertinent to the creation and maintenance of the description. For example, the names of persons responsible for creating and/or revising the description may be recorded here." ISDIAH 5.6.9, ISAAR 5.4.9

The DCB implements this data element as a multi-value field.

For an authority record or an organization, enter the note, select the note type; when you save the record, the DCB registers the note and displays it in the list above the data entry fields. There is no limit to the number of notes that can be added, but as of the current version of the DCB (1.0 beta) you can only register them one at a time; i.e. enter the data, click the "save" button and repeat for each additional note.