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Welcome
This is an experimental implementation of the Records in Contexts Conceptual Model (RiC-CM v1.0).
It is intended as a sandbox environment where practitioners can familiarize themselves with the RiC-CM; try creating RiC records by hand, by using the Cradle input forms, or by using Quickstatements; and querying the Wikibase using the SPARQL service.
Try'em all and share your thoughts!
How to use this site
This is not a finding aid site, so don't worry about adding perfect data or making RiC mistakes. Just try adding some data as if you were processing and see what happens. The point is to get a feel for how RiC changes archival description and descriptive workflows.
You are invited and encouraged to leave any observations, suggestions, concerns etc. on the Discussion Page (second tab above). That way, others can see what your experience was like, compare it to their own, and respond, and we as a community of practice can have a conversation about how RiC impacts archival description and our daily work.
Create records manually
1. Make a Special:NewItem.
2. Give it a label and, if applicable, a description, e.g. "Smith Family Correspondence".
3. Add the record type by using the instance of property and the applicable RiC Item, e.g. Record Set.
4. Add RiC statements as appropriate, e.g. one or more has creator statements connecting Smith Family members who authored the correspondence (note that you need to create those records before you can use them in statements).
Create records using the Cradle forms
(Note that not every record type has a form)
1. Go to the Cradle forms page.
2. Make sure you are logged in to save your work.
3. Click on the form you wish to use, e.g. Record Set
4. The form gives you all possible fields for the selected record type. Fill in the ones that apply. (Note that you may need to create Item records before you can use them in statements on this form.)
Some Do's and Don't's
The idea is to test-drive archival description in RiC--but not to edit RiC itself. To that end:
- add or edit Individuals, i.e. archival description
- refrain from editing first- and second-level ontology records, i.e. those that define the RiC ontology itself (RiC entities) or support the LD infrastructure proper (RDF, OWL, or Wikidata entities).
For example:
- DO change the Individual value "Consists of carbon copy paper" to "Consists of thermal receipt paper" as appropriate.
- DO connect or disconnect Individuals to/from other Individuals using RiC properties (e.g. "Receipts" to the note "Consists of thermal receipt paper" via the property Physical Characteristics Note)
- DO connect or disconnect Individuals to/from RiC properties, like the record "Receipts" to Record Set via the property instance of
- DON'T make changes to the records that describe the RiC ontology proper, like the record "Physical Characteristics Note" or "Record Set"
- DON'T make changes to the records that allow us to define ontologies in the first place, i.e. any RDF, OWL, or Wikidata properties such as the record "instance of" or the record "same as".
If you want to look under the hood
You may find some notes detailing the decisions made in this implementation, including by what logic RiC Entities have been implemented as Items, Object Properties, or Data Properties; which sources are used here for controlled vocabularies; how constraints are handled in this Wikibase; extensions and more in the implementation notes.