Contents:
Agents
Tours and Tour Stops
Sources
Instructing Itinera
Agents
Should supporting agents be created and related to main agents if the main agents have only written to them? In other words, if the supporting agent was not at the location, should that supporting agent be created?
Make a note that this person was in correspondence with that person, but do not create a new agent. Include to whom and by the letter is written.
When writing anecdotal paragraphs and agent biographies, what verb tense should the author use?
The author should always use the past tense.
Tours and Tour Stops
When does a “tour” start? What is a life “event?” What is a tour stop?
A tour is the spatial and temporal location of all “life events” we can define for each individual entered into Itinera. Cradle to grave. There are cases where the birth date is undocumented and only the baptismal date is recorded. For the sake of precision, “active” and “baptism” options have been added.
If someone leaves for and arrives in Florence, do we enter that tour stop as a range of dates or as one date since he/she/they do not do anything important during the travel time, and would we enter it as the departure date or the arrival date?
We would enter that trip as a tour stop, so it would be a range of dates. “Travelled from Rome to Florence” “June 1789-July 1789” or the like
If an event is recorded at a specific time of day, how should I include this information?
The time should absolutely be in both the display date and in the indexing date.
This sort of detail is what the computer helps us with the most…we shouldn’t ever miss an opportunity for precision. See the Workflow for the rules for human- and computer-readable date indexing
What is the difference between a Tour Stop and a Life Event?
That remains to be determined.
If someone leaves for and arrives in Florence, do we enter that tour stop as a range of dates or as one date since he/she/they do not do anything important during the travel time, and would we enter it as the departure date or the arrival?We would enter that trip as a tourstop, so it would be a range of dates. “Travelled from Rome to Florence” “June 1789-July 1789” or the like.
If someone goes to Florence for a long period of time, and within that period, meet someone, sees a particular monument, copies a work, etc. how do we handle that? What kinds of “activities” should be counted as “tour stops?”
If we don’t have a particular time or a particular place in Florence, then right now, we can count all such activities as one stop, making a note in the notes (is that “introduction” here?) of all the things that went down. However, if we know a particular place OR time, there needs to be a separate tour stop made. It is OK if the dates overlap, but make sure that the dates are marked “probable” when they are “probable” and “exact” when they are “exact.”
If an event is recorded at a specific time of day, how should this be handled?
I suggest the time of day should not be in the display date, but instead in the notes. The time should absolutely be in both the display date and in the indexing date. This sort of detail is what the computer helps us with the most…we shouldn’t ever miss an opportunity for precision. Dates sometimes appear as a specific time of day, such as the reference refers to “overnight” or “afternoon,” or appear as an exact hour or set. See Workflow, appendix 1, “Approximate Dates.”
Sources
How can we assess the quality of a source?
That would be through the CRAAP Analysis.
Instructing Itinera