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2 General Guidelines

General Information

Following the Rules

Data creators: For Vocabulary editors, contributors, and other content creators, to enter or edit data for the Getty Vocabularies, follow the Editorial Rules in this document. Contributors or other users may compare their in-house rules to the guidelines in this document to gauge compatibility. Where the rules or their application are ambiguous or not applicable to a situation at hand, please consult with the Getty Vocabulary Program, vocab@getty.edu. These rules are regularly updated to reflect solutions and recommendations for new issues.

Required Fields and Minimal Records

Implementers: Developers and other implementers of the Getty Vocabularies should refer to this document to extrapolate information that will aid in understanding and presenting the Getty Vocabulary data correctly. Among the most important guidelines are the following:

  • Do not omit references to the sources and contributors of the Getty Vocabulary data. The Getty Vocabularies are compiled from contributors’ data and this contribution should be recognized.

  • Published sources should be cited, to avoid plagiarism and as responsible scholarly practice. In implementations, please consider including all data included in the Vocabulary record (“record” meaning all data linked directly or indirectly by a given subject_id).

  • Do not omit flags such as unknown or values in display fields undetermined. For scholarship, contributors who are adding information to the records, and others, it useful to know when a value is unknown rather than left empty. An empty field means nothing. A value such as unknown, even if it is a default value, is in itself useful information about the status of the field and can serve to identify areas requiring additional research. See also the discussion below about how catalogers deal with information that is unknown to themselves, or unknowable in the broader context of scholarship.

Minimal Record

When adding new records, create a record that meets requirements for a minimal record, which contains at minimum all required fields (core fields).

Fuller Records

For contributions, fuller records are welcome, particularly those having useful alternate names, relationships, points of view, and coreferences.

Required Fields

A minimum record in IA contains the fields listed below. Minimum records for contribution may be fewer than the list below, because default values may be added during the data load.

  • A numeric ID identifies the record uniquely (IDs are assigned by the system)
  • Iconography type
  • A parent (hierarchical position is indicating by marking the parent level with DOM)
  • Preferred name
    • language of the name
    • various associated flags (most are system-assigned automatically)
    • sources for the name
    • contributor of the name
  • Descriptive note
    • sources for the descriptive note

Additional names, links to other IA records, to TGN, AAT, ULAN, or CONA may also be included, as time and editorial priorities allow.

Revised 26 December 2024