Inconsistencies in which finding aid data fields are displayed to end users
Description
If you fill in every field in the Finding Aid Data section of a resource in the staff interface, some fields are not displayed in the PUI, and/or the PDFs (there are two kinds: generated by the PUI when a user clicks the Print button and generated by the backend triggered by a job run in the staff interface). But pretty much all are searchable using the default keyword search, and included in EAD exports.
The following table summarizes this:
Field | Displayed in PUI HTML | Displayed in PUI PDF | Displayed in backend PDF | Searchable in PUI | Included in EAD export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EAD ID | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
EAD Location | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Finding Aid Title | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
Finding Aid Subtitle | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Finding Aid Filing Title | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Finding Aid Date | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Finding Aid Author | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Description Rules | Yes | Yes | Yes | Only abbreviated form | Yes |
Language of Description | Yes | Yes | No | Only ISO 639-2 code | Only EAD3, not EAD2002 |
Script of Description | Yes | No | No | Only ISO 15924 code | Only EAD3, not EAD2002 |
Language of Description Note | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Sponsor | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Edition Statement | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Series Statement | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Finding Aid Status | Yes | No | No | Only as code in resource_finding_aid_status | Yes |
Finding Aid Note | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Some of these seem like they should at least be displayed in the PUI HTML, in the "Finding Aid & Administrative Information" section. But because these are all simple text fields, and therefore don't have publish checkboxes, any decision to display them needs to work for everyone. For example, I have been asked by archivists here at the Bodleian to make the Finding Aid Note visible, because we use it to give credit to contributors beyond the author of the finding aid. But other institutions may have decided to use it for staff-only notes (however, if so, they may not be aware the contents are searchable and included in the EAD, and therefore the OAI-PMH feed.)
I'd say that anything which is displayed in the PUI HTML should be displayed in both types of PDF, but if so where?
Anything which is, by design, not displayed to end users should probably be skipped by the indexer, so peopel are not confused by records which match their search query without any visible reason why.
Does anyone have any opinions on what should be displayed where in a stock ArchivesSpace system? Anything can be changed via plug-ins, but we're trying to reduce the number of templates we override, as they each require review whenever upgrading to a new core release.
