MyContacts
The MyContacts tool in INDI is a general purpose contacts manager, used for gathering donor and creator information. These contact records can be associated with different projects, as well as with one another, to document their role and function relative to a collection. The data structure behind the tool is based on the vCard standard, with additional fields added to accommodate Encoded Archival Context (EAC) information.
An INDI contact record includes three types of information, each shown in a different tab of the interface. The first tab, or “card view”, is primarily based on vCard data fields and stores information about the creator, including gender, important dates, related locations, and other associations.
The second tab, or “INDI view”, includes additional EAC data fields. These include standard EAC elements such as historical notes, occupations and functions, as well other descriptive entry categories suggested by the NCECHO Project, such as ethnicity, religious affiliation and political affiliation.
This view also includes the ability to link the INDI record to a related Library of Congress name authority record. By this means INDI implements the emerging Functional Requirements of Authority Data (FRAD) concept model to archival authorities, separating the controlled form of the name (name record) from the contact record (person/corporate body/family record).
By separating the name authority component from the archival authority record, we hope to reduce the maintenance needed to maintain two parallel authority databases.