Moving Here Catalogue Records Explained
The Moving Here Catalogue contains the free, online digitised material which has been contributed by the thirty partners of the Moving Here project. These are local, regional and national museums, archives and libraries from across England. The contents of the Catalogue ranges from art objects, maps, and audio clips to photographs and government documents.
The entries in the Moving Here catalogue, created by all the different partners, have been brought together to create a single, unique virtual archive relating to migration which can be searched by keyword, date, community, theme, format and contributor (partner).
The Moving Here catalogue descriptions are those created by the partners. However, in addition Moving Here required certain fields of information to be filled in for every catalogue record, such as title, date, community etc. in order to try and maintain some consistency. This is in line with the Dublin Core Metadata standard. As a result you should expect to see the same basic pieces of information for all items.
Catalogue Records
Most documents, files, objects, photographs etc. have been described as a single record within the Moving Here catalogue. Therefore, there is usually just one description per item. However, a single catalogue record could have just one or many images linked to it to download. (For example one catalogue record might describe a school register. This will have many pages which have been digitised and can be downloaded by you).
Catalogue Sub-Records
There are cases where partners decided to provide two levels of information due to the specific nature and size of the item. (For example, audio-visual material with many tracks). This is where there will be a record and a sub-record.
The catalogue entry for a record with subrecords has links to the subrecords in the top right hand corner called view subrecords.
When looking at the actual subrecord catalogue entry you can also link to all the other related subrecords related to that item by clicking on view all subrecords in the top right hand corner.
The Moving Here Catalogue Display Screen - Part 1
The first screen of the catalogue entry shows the following fields:
- Reference
- This is unique to the item being described by the Moving Here partner which holds it. It is a string of numbers and letters separated by slashes, spaces or colons. This is what you need to remember if you wish to refer back to the Moving Here partner where the original item is held.
- Title
- This is the name given to the item. It may also contain some information describing it.
- Description
- This is the main statement of what the item is and what it relates to. It is a statement about the subject matter and content of the item.
- Dates
- These identify and record the date(s) of creation of the item being described. The dates could be in the form of a precise day, month and year or an estimated year or range of covering dates.
- Community
- Identifies the key community the item relates to within the scope of the Moving Here project. There are four key communities: Caribbean, Irish, Jewish and South Asian.
- Theme
- Identifies the key theme within the scope of the Moving Here project. There are four themes: Origins (being there; relating to the conditions in the country of origin), Journeys (moving here; the experiences of living in England), Settling (being here; experiences of living in England) and Connecting (reconnecting with the country of origin).
- Format
- Identifies the format or media type of the original item being described (not its digital version on the Moving Here website). One of the following format options will appear; text, image, object, audio, film.
- Partner
- Identifies the partner providing the item to the Moving Here site. It is where the original item is held. The initials of the partner organisation are underlined and in brackets. Click on this to get further details of the partner such as facilities, opening hours, collections etc.
- Access
- Indicates any conditions that restrict or affect access to the original item being described. Users wishing to visit the public facilities of any partner in order to see the original item which has been digitised should take note of this field. They can find out more about the partner by following the link from the Contributor field.
The Moving Here Catalogue Display Screen - Part 2
Clicking on the button next to show full details for this reference in the bottom right hand corner will expand the catalogue entry and reveal more information about the item.
With the exception of the Rights field, which should always be filled in, the other fields may or may not be present depending if the partners have provided this information.
- Subject
- Term(s) significant to, relevant to, or which summarises the topic of the item being described. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Person
- Personal names as subjects which are significant or relevant to the item being described. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Place
- The name(s) of place(s) significant or relevant to the item being described. They may refer to a place as subject, production place or associated place. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Publisher
- The person, organisation or entity responsible for the publication of the item. Can also include the place of publication. Applies only to published items. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Creator
- Identifies individuals or organisations responsible for creating, making, originating or producing the item being described. It covers the artist, producer, cultural group, corporate body or other entity creating the item. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Contributor
- The person, organisation or entity responsible for making contributions to the content of the item being described in a role other than creator, publisher or person as subject. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Physical Description
- Identifies a wide range of physical description information about the original item being described. Includes information on medium, support, type of object, type of image, materials and techniques, extent, dimensions, scale, physical condition etc. These are selected by the Moving Here partner in accordance with their own practices.
- Language
- Indicates the language(s) of the original material being described.
- See Also
- Identifies related material or sources that have a direct and significant connection to the item being described. These related resources may not always be in the Moving Here Catalogue, sometimes they will only be available at the Partner institution.
- Rights
- Information about rights held in and over the item being described. It encompasses Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright and various other rights (e.g. trademark).
- Additional information
- Specialised information which cannot be accommodated elsewhere. Administrative history information, biographical details or an historical statement about the item being described may be included here.
Downloads and Links
Below the catalogue entry screen there are :
- thumbnail images of the first page of the document, the first image or a symbol to show it is an audio clip or a still from a film.
- links to PDF files (Portable Document Format) which are available for you to download, free of charge. These are digitised versions of the original items described by the catalogue record. If the original item was large it may have been split up into several files for ease of downloading. Help on how to download resources is available on this site.
- plug-ins to enable you to see the digitised images or hear the audio and see the videos
- a button to the help pages on how to download images from the Moving Here Catalogue
- There is also a link to the tell us Your Story section of the site. If the record you downloaded is interesting to you please tell us about it by adding your own story to the Moving Here site.
- If the items is also in The Gallery there will be a link so you can go and see it in there and discover some more related items
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