Archival Document Location

Most museums as well as other heritage organisations hold archival records about the creators they document. For example, the Artists in Canada database documents this information as well as its primary sources. In CIDOC CRM, there is a distinction between information itself and the physical object this information is in (such as a book, a document, etc.). It is therefore necessary to create an E22_Human-Made_Object in conjunction with an E31_Document in order to document (with the property P70_documents) the E39_Actor institution which holds the document. This pattern enables the localisation of the physical archival document by linking this E22_Human-Made_Object to an E53_Place through a P54_has_current_permanent_location property. This also enables the recording of its call number as an E42_Identifier along with a P1_is_identified_by property.

E73_Information_Object encompasses a large set of concepts that have an “objectively recognizable structure and are documented as single units” (Le Boeuf et al. 2015, sec. E73 Information Object). However, it is also advised that “instances of E73_Information_Object of a documentary nature […] be declared as instances of the E31_Document subclass”, which is why the latter has been preferred to the former (Le Boeuf et al. 2015, sec. E73 Information Object).

Note that there is a distinction between the physical location of an institution (e.g. the city, address, or building where it is established—which is documented as an E53_Place) and the institution itself (i.e. an E74_Group).

074_Pattern_DocumentLocation_p

💡 Example: Artists in Canada indicates that Artexte and the University of Calgary Library both have archival documents about Jean Paul Riopelle. The Artexte archival documents have the call number “410 - RIOPELLE, JEAN PAUL”; the University of Calgary call number is unknown.

075_Example_DocumentLocationRiopelle_p

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