<div dir="ltr">Hi Matthew,<div>I'm not entirely sure what you mean by no distinction between creator and subject with regards to agents. Do you mean that you have two agents, one with the role of 'creator' and one with the role of 'subject'? Or do you mean it is bringing in things that should be classified as subjects as agents? Subjects are separate from Agents in ASpace (see an example from one of our collections here: <a href="http://findingaids.brandeis.edu/repositories/2/resources/20">http://findingaids.brandeis.edu/repositories/2/resources/20</a>), but it is possible that the Archon import tool is only interpreting these as agents and not subjects.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Max -- I'm not a cataloger or a metadata expert so just personal opinion, but #2 sounds the most feasible given how ASpace displays agents and subjects. Either that somewhat of a middle ground: in that example agents would be UMich and American Brass Company, and Subjects would be the whole term (<span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">University of Michigan--Students--Political activity.) That might be a bit more clear for users.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Thanks,</div><div>-Maura</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Matthew J Gorzalski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mGorzalski@lib.siu.edu" target="_blank">mGorzalski@lib.siu.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Are you an Archon user? We have related agent problems coming from Archon to ASpace. Our test migrations show that any collection that has a corporate/personal name as both the
creator and as a subject will migrate BOTH into ASpace under the agent field with NO distinction between creator and subject. Our example is an artificial collection called Morris Library Photograph Collection where Morris Library is both creator and subject.
In Archon you can clearly distinguish between these two roles because Creators and Subjects are separate sections. But in ArchivesSpace they are both lumped into Agents and given that generic non-descript person icon. So it is confusing for researchers to
see two Morris Library entries under Agents because their roles are not distinguished. This same public interface design flaw works the same for any collection using a name as subject and creator.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">Mat Gorzalski<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif">SIU Carbondale<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces@lyralists.lyrasis.org" target="_blank">archivesspace_users_group-bounces@lyralists.lyrasis.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:archivesspace_users_group-bounces@lyralists.lyrasis.org" target="_blank">archivesspace_users_group-bounces@lyralists.lyrasis.org</a>]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Max Eckard<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, August 11, 2015 2:45 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Archivesspace Users Group <<a href="mailto:archivesspace_users_group@lyralists.lyrasis.org" target="_blank">archivesspace_users_group@lyralists.lyrasis.org</a>><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Archivesspace_Users_Group] Agents with topical (or other) subdivisions in ASpace<u></u><u></u></span></p><div><div class="h5">
<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Hello ASpacers!<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">We've been working on importing agents into ArchivesSpace, but have run into an issue. As an example, we have a number of <corpname> elements that are subdivided with topical subjects, like so:<u></u><u></u></p>
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University of Michigan--Students--Political activity.<u></u><u></u></li><li class="MsoNormal">
University of Michigan--Faculty.<u></u><u></u></li><li class="MsoNormal">
American Brass Company--Strikes.<u></u><u></u></li></ul>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The issue we've encountered is that there is no space in ASpace for agents that are subdivided in this way. Note: we are not talking about agents with primary and subordinate names (with periods in between them)--ASpace handles these just
fine! We've been thinking about a number of ways to handle this:<u></u><u></u></p>
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We could divide up these terms so that the first term gets imported as an agent (in the examples above, corporate entity) and the rest of the term gets imported as a subject (or a subdivided subject). We've experimented a little with this
<a href="https://github.com/bentley-historical-library/vandura/compare/master...eckardm:master" target="_blank">
here</a>. The problem with this approach is that subdividing names/agents is a longstanding practice here (and totally acceptable in MARC), and making a change like this would require making an even (arguably) bigger change to descriptive practices here and
cause issues with exporting MARC records from ASpace.<u></u><u></u></li><li class="MsoNormal">
We could just leave the whole string, dash dashes and all, as the primary form of name. This could work, but it seems inelegant, since each variation would be imported as a new agent, even though we're only referring to one.<u></u><u></u></li><li class="MsoNormal">
We could change these to subjects, but that doesn't seem quite right either, since agents can have the role of subject.<u></u><u></u></li></ol>
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<p class="MsoNormal">We've been trying to consider all angles, including what affect a change like this could have on researcher searching and browsing. Now we're wondering what you all do. Do you have subdivided agents (<corpname>s, <famname>s and <persname>s)?
If so, how have you imported these into ASpace?<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Thank you for your time!<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Max<u></u><u></u></p>
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<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">-- <u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:9.5pt">Max Eckard</span></b><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><br>
<b>Assistant Archivist for Digital Curation</b></span><u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><img border="0" width="351" height="40" src="https://webapps.lsa.umich.edu/dean/lsa_emails/bentley-sig-em.png"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Bentley Historical Library</span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt">1150 Beal Ave.<br>
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2113<br>
<a href="tel:734.763.7518" target="_blank"><span style="color:#1155cc">734/763-7518</span></a></span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:7.5pt"><a href="http://bentley.umich.edu/" target="_blank"><span style="color:#1155cc">http://bentley.umich.edu/</span></a> </span><span style="font-size:9.5pt"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Maura Carbone<div>Digital Initiatives Librarian<br>Brandeis University<br>Library and Technology Services<br>(781) 736-4659<br>415 South Street, (MS 017/P.O. Box 549110)<br>Waltham, MA 02454-9110<br>email: <a href="mailto:mauraa@brandeis.edu" target="_blank">mauraa@brandeis.edu</a><br></div></div></div>
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